It's All Relative
by shane1594
Summary: Ash and his sister decide to go through the Hoenn Region, leaving their starters behind, to compete and find out just who deserves the title of Pokemon Master.
1. A New Challenge

Sometime after Ash had finished travelling through the Sinnoh Region he and his sister were both staying in Pallet Town for some time off after journeying through many different regions and seeing many different Pokémon. Ash's sister, Ashleigh was his twin. Although they had been separated at birth, Ashleigh going with their father to the Orange Archipelago and Ash, as we all know, stayed with his mother. Ash and Ashleigh had actually met quite by accident as it was not through contact with either of their parents but, typically, through a Pokémon battle. It was as part of a battle tournament that they had both entered. They met each other in the final round, not having seen or heard anything of the other throughout the entire tournament. In the end it was a tie between the two and they each got an Eevee as a prize. Right now though they were sitting on opposite sides of the dining room table and Ashleigh was saying "and then I had Fearow use Steel Wing on Altaria and..."

"Alright, that's enough Ashleigh. I've just about heard enough of how your battles went. Ash, you too."

"Alright" was the twins' echoed reply, both slumping down onto the table, no longer having any idea on what to talk about.

After about five minutes of staring at each other Delia said "oh, alright fine. Go on talking about battles for as long as you want then."

"Alright, where was I? Ah yes, Altaria used _Dragonbreath_..."

Just then there was a knock on the door and Delia called out "Ash honey, can you answer that?"

"Yes mum..." Ash groaned out. Ashleigh sniggered at the name that their mother still used for her brother. "Stop laughing."

"But I'm not laughing" Ashleigh said, schooling her face into an unreadable mask.

Ash growled at his sister before opening the door. It was Professor Oak. "Professor! What are you doing here?" Ash queried.

"Ah Ash, Ashleigh, just the trainers that I wanted to see."

"Oh-h-h, Professor, how are you today?" Delia asked.

"I'm fine Delia. How about you?"

"I'm fine...so, why have you come here?"

"Why, I'm glad you asked. You see, I'm pretty sure that by now Ash and Ashleigh are getting pretty bored just staying here when they could be out seeing the world."

"No no, we're just fine" Ash said.

"Yeah" Ashleigh said, echoing the sentiment.

"Well, even so. I thought that I'd come over and tell you that they've opened up a new Safari Zone in the Johto Region."

"A Safari Zone huh?" Ash asked.

"Sounds interesting" Ashleigh said.

"I thought that you might think so. To celebrate the opening of it they are holding a onetime only promotion where you can enter into the park with two Safari Balls and catch Pokémon that reside there."

"Really? Only two? The Safari Zone here you can take in thirty at a time."

"Yes, well I suppose that in the end it is a business. If they give people thirty Safari Balls for free then there will be no Pokémon left in the park for normal use."

"Makes sense."

"So, what are you going to do?"

"Well, go there of course."

"I thought that you might say that" Professor Oak said "but the opening tomorrow and the Johto Safari Zone is in the westernmost part of the Johto Region. You'll never make it in time by normal means."

"Then why are you..."

"That's why I went and retrieved this for you" Professor Oak said, holding a pokéball out to Ash.

"What is...?" Ash trailed off, thinking of only one possibility of what could be inside the pokéball. Ash then ran outside, threw the pokéball into the sky, calling "come on out, Pidgeot."

The ball flew up and, a few metres off the ground a red light appeared as the pokéball opened. Out of the light a brown Pokémon with long, pink, feathers stretching back away from its face burst out, crying "Pidgeot, Pidgeot, pidgeo-o-o-o-o-o-o!" flapping its wings in an ostentatious manner. It then came down and landed next to Ash.

Ashleigh, standing in the doorway asked "so, this is the Pidgeot that you were telling me about then?"

"Yes" Ash replied.

"Well then, I must admit, I was wrong after all. It is indeed every bit as majestic as you claimed."

"That's a first."

"What's that?"

"I said 'that's a first'."

"What is a first?"

"That you've admitted that you've been wrong about something."

"That's because it's the first time that I've been wrong about something."

"Why you-u-u!"

"Alright, that's enough. I contacted Professor Ivy and had Fearow sent over for you Ashleigh" Professor Oak said, handing her another pokéball.

"Come on out, Fearow" Ashleigh called out. A Fearow appeared in a similar fashion to that of Ash's Pidgeot.

"Wait here just a second" Ash and Ashleigh said simultaneously "I just need to get my bag." The twins then rushed up to their rooms and, on their beds were a new backpack, each fully packed and, on Ash's was a blue, high collared, coat that reached to halfway down his calf that had no outside pockets, but there were two deep pockets on either side inside the coat, along with a new pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. On Ashleigh's bed there was another coat, in the same style as Ash's, only hers was a light mauve. There was also a mauve skirt and a black tank top. The twins donned their new clothes, made for them by their mother, and then rushed downstairs, through the front door, jumped onto their birds and then took off, Ash leaving behind Pikachu and Ashleigh leaving her Skitty behind in their rush to get to the new Safari Zone. "I'll beat ya there Ash/Ashleigh" and they were off, competing in a high speed race towards the far side of the Johto Region.


	2. Enter The Safari Zone

The twins flew high through the sky over the land and, whenever they could the pokemon flew down close to the water, splashing water up in their wake. They repeatedly changed position until, eventually, the Pokémon got tired. When that happened they were over Cianwood City. The Pokémon, ignoring their trainers' pleas to go on, circled slowly, gliding down to the ground, landing just outside the Pokémon Centre of Cianwood City. They returned their Pokémon and took them into the Pokémon Centre to get them looked at by the resident Nurse Joy. They handed them over at the desk and Nurse Joy took them from them and away into the Pokémon Centre's evaluation room. Once there she was astounded by the condition that they were in. She went out and told their trainers that they were no longer in any condition to carry them two metres, let alone carry them to the Safari Zone. They asked Nurse Joy to take care of them and then send them on to Professor Oak's Laboratory. That was when Liza flew in on Charla; Ash's Charizard was following behind as well. She offered to take them over to the Safari Zone the next day, in return Ash had to agree to take on the responsibility of raising one of their children from an egg that he received from Liza. Ashleigh rapidly offered to take another one and, at the urging of Ash, Charizard and Charla accepted the proposal. Ashleigh then contacted Professor Ivy and asked her to send her Toxicroak over. The next day the twins were up bright and early, as were Liza and the Charizard. They got into the balloon basket and took off towards the Safari Zone.

Two hours later they arrived at the safari zone. They went inside the entry building and told them that they were there to take part in the grand opening promotion event. The officials told them that they had arrived just in time as almost all of the Safari Balls had been handed out already. The twins took the balls gladly and then entered the park. "Hey Ashleigh, do you want to stick together while we're doing this thing or what?" Ash asked.

"Nah, let's do our own thing and then meet up back here when we're done" Ashleigh replied. When they were in the park the first thing that they saw was a large amount of people queuing up to go down this one staircase. Ash and Ashleigh walked up to some people and asked why it was that there were so many people lining up like they were.

The people that they had asked, unbeknown to them(incredibly) was none other than the team from Team Rocket that Ash somehow always managed to cross paths with. Ashleigh had her own problems with the criminal organisation as well, but that's for another time. the female of the rocket duo, Jessie, grabbed James' shoulder and crouched down, drawing James with her. She said "I don't believe it...it's the twerp."

"How did he follow us here. We checked before we came here and he had no tickets to the Johto region, nor any idea about this promotion."

"It doesn't really matter does it?"

"Of course it matters. He never goes anywhere without that Pikachu of his, so this is our chance to nab it."

"Uh, sorry Jess, but it looks like he don't have Pikachu this time" Meowth said.

"What?" Jessie asked, dumbfounded at the possibility of an Ash Ketchum without a yellow, pint sized rat with him.

"Hey you know what, Meowth is right, he doesn't have Pikachu with him" James said.

"Really? Then this is our chance" Meowth said.

"Chance? For what?"

"Think about it. In all our battles against him what's the one thing that never changes?"

"We lose?"

"We end up flying off into the distance and landing in some place that we invariably fall from?"

"No. Whenever we try and steal his Pokémon he always uses Pikachu to beat us. Which means..."

"That without Pikachu we'll be able to beat him" Jessie half asked; then, with more confidence she continued "and steal all of his Pokémon!"

"Yeah, and then we'll send 'em to the boss and he'll reward us handsomely. Then I can get all the catnip I want."

"A yacht for me so I can spend my time sailing the world's oceans" James said, off in dreamland.

"And I'll buy all the clothes that I want and open up a clothes store with only the best designer clothes" Jessie said, also in dreamland.

"Well first of all we gotta get his Pokémon, so this is what we'll do..."

By this time Ash and his sister had moved off and asked someone else and they replied "we're all lining up here because this leads to the Marshland and it apparently has the most Pokémon. The man in charge also said that the Pokémon in this section of the park are the easiest to catch and really good for beginner trainers."

"Beginners?" Ash said in a questioning tone "I can see heaps of people here that I _know_ have been training Pokémon for a really long time."

"Yes, well some of us, such as myself, have children at home and want a Pokémon that they can grow up alongside."

"I see. My mother had a few grass and flying types for me to play with when I was growing up."

"Dad was much the same, except he had water types rather than grass types."

"Not that surprising really, when you consider that you grew up in the Orange Islands."

"You from the Orange Archipelago?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Which island do you come from?"

"I grew up on a small island near Kinnow Island."

"I see, I'll have to tell my boy to go there, he's talking about taking on the orange league when he's old enough to become a trainer."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm afraid that he can't then."

"What? Why not?"

"Because, it's said that the Orange League is so strong that nobody without at least three badges will have any hope of competing, let alone winning, against even the weakest of the Orange Crew."

"I see. I'll have to tell my boy that then. Thank you for the information."

"No problem Jiji."

"Hey, Ashley, that's rude."

"It's no problem, to you youngsters I probably do seem like an old man. But I'm only 38. So Jiji doesn't really apply." Ash sighed in relief and the person continued "I'm Xavier. If you're ever in Azalea Town, please just ask anyone, they all know where my family lives."

"Sure thing."

"Alright, thanks for the info. We'll go somewhere else for the time being."

"I hope to meet you again."

"I have the feeling that we will" Ash replied.

"Well then, I'll see you later."

Ash and Ashleigh then walked away from the crowd and when they saw entrances to areas with signs posted next to them, one saying Mountain and the other Forest. "I think that I'll go to the Mountain Area" Ash said.

"I've never really been a fan of the mountains, I had more than enough of them growing up; I'll go into the Forest."

The twins then split up, each taking different stairs. When Ash reached the top of the set of stairs, which turned out to have actually been cut into the side of a cliff, he saw the Mountain Area, and the name was a definite understatement. There were no less than twenty mountains in the area. Ash correctly deduced that they would all contain different sets of Pokémon, when he got to the bottom, not having any idea of which Pokémon resided in each mountain, he just picked one at random and decided to search it for Pokémon. In Ashleigh's case, her staircase was slightly different, she had had to enter through a slight corridor before she came back out into the light and saw her set of stairs. Hers actually consisted of a series of planks placed into a tree. When she got to the bottom of the tree she just walked away from the staircase, not really caring where she went. Ashleigh walked looking around her everywhere. Everywhere she looked she saw all different kinds of Pokémon; in the trees she saw flocks of Pidgey, on the ground were Bellsprout, every-so-often she would see a Bronzong levitating around, sometimes they were travelling with an Electabuzz. The first time she saw that she rhetorically asked "I wonder why they're travelling together like that."

All of a sudden a creepy person crept up behind her and said "I can answer that."

Her eyes widened to comic proportions and she stammered out "wh-wh-who a-ar-are you?"

The person pushed their glasses up onto the bridge of his nose. As he did so they somehow flashed and he said "I'm Conway, pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Uhh...the pleasure is all yours, I'm sure" Ashleigh replied.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to be related to Ash Ketchum by any chance, would you?"

"Uh yeah, I'm his sister" Ashleigh answered.

"I thought so. But as to why Electabuzz and Bronzong travel together, the answer is quite simple really. Wild Bronzong tend to use up a lot of power with their attacks, so, when they run out, Electabuzz can easily recharge them and Bronzong can protect Electabuzz from ground type Pokémon. It's a symbiotic relationship. Unfortunately for trainers such a situation tends to make them difficulty to catch. That's why there were a large amount of trainers entering the Marshland Area of the Safari Zone. They want to conserve the power of their Pokémon. Of course, once you catch a Pokémon here you _can_ use it to battle other Pokémon, but they'll also be exhausted and therefore almost useless."

"Wow, you seem to know a lot about the Safari Zone Conway. Especially since it only just opened."

"Of course. A for a trainer to be successful correct information is a necessity."

"I've never once thought that and I've mastered both the Kanto Battle Frontier and defeated all of the members of the Orange League."

"Really? I see that Pokémon battling talent must be in the Ketchum blood."

"Well, it has been said so."

"Really? When is that?"

"My mother said that battling skills run in the family when Team Rocket tried to steal the Pokémon from Professor Oak's Laboratory, although all through history it has been said time and again."

"History?"

"Yes. Our ancestor, Satoshi Ketchum was the one that brought an end to the tyrannical rulers of the Kanto Empire. He defeated all of their Pokémon, along with their guards with just six of his own."

"Six!"

"Well, at least that's the story. Wether that was what really happened or not is actually unknown."

"I see. No wonder I was defeated then."

"What?"

"Your brother didn't tell you? He defeated me to go on into the quarter final of the Sinnoh League Competition."

"Ohh! You're the creep that was following Dawn around."

"I'm not sure I like how you put that, but yes; that was me."

"Well, thanks for telling me about the symbi-watzit relationship between Bronzong and Electabuzz."

"No problem" Conway said, walking away from Ashleigh. When he was out of earshot he quietly said "there's another that I'm going to have to keep an eye on." He then chuckled creepily.

"Well, I can't really say I'm not relieved that freak's gone" Ashleigh said to herself. As she was saying that she saw, to her surprise, a Beldum bouncing around, not a care in the world. "A Beldum" she said to herself. "That's a really rare Pokémon, and, if I remember right, it evolves into a Metagross, It'll be so cool if I can catch that and then I'll finally show my brother up once and for all...damn him catching a Gible when I caught a Deino." She then crept up upon it and, when she was right behind it, she threw the Safari Ball at it and it got sucked in the ball then shook once, twice, and then it popped out and rapidly bounced away, too quick for Ashleigh to catch up with it, even at her top speed. Ashleigh dropped down to her knees and her hung her head at her lack of a catch.

Meanwhile Ash was halfway up the cliff that he had picked to climb and see if he could find any Pokémon. He reached up for another handhold and, feeling that it was different to every other handhold he looked up and saw that it was in actual fact, not another handhold, but actually a ledge. He thought to himself 'finally, a place to rest. It's about bloody time.' as he said this he reached his other hand up and, having his hands in a position where they could easily take his weight if needed, he moved his legs up to where his hands were two steps ago. He rested his arms on the ledge and then, with an almighty heave, he pushed himself up on his hands and swung his legs over the ledge. Finally having a place to rest Ash flopped down and extended his arms behind himself, propping himself up into a sitting position. He sat there panting for a while before seeing that there was a vending machine full of water that had been provided by the organising committee for people that had reached that spot. After he had sated his thirst, at first slowly as he knew that if, when you're in extreme thirst, what you need to do is _not_ drink large amounts of water as quickly as possible, but drink small amounts at a slow rate so that you don't fall down in extreme pain, and then at a faster rate to replenish all the water that he had lost in his climb up.

He then looked around him. He could see the peak of the mountain from where he was but decided against trying to climb to the top purely so he could say that he had done so as, undoubtedly, someone else had climbed it first. Besides, the oxygen levels at the height that he currently was at were pretty low, any higher and he might not make it back alive. So, discounting any attempts at climbing further up he looked around him. To his left, about twenty metres away he saw a cave entrance. He then looked to the right and saw a series of caves, easily accessible, but there were so many he wouldn't know where to start. He decided to start, as you normally do, at the beginning, and climbed over to the first cave. Once he was in the cave he saw that it was actually very dark, too dark. So he decided to call Charizard out, thinking 'Charizard's tail be able to...argh...what was I thinking, climbing all this way when I could've just as easily...' he audibly growled and heard a leathery flapping of wings. He started to ask himself "what is tha..." when he was bombarded by wings. He got a flashlight that was conveniently at the top of his bag and turned it on to see that it was a flock of Zubat and Golbat flying at and around him as they tried to exit the cave in fright. Ash fell flat against the ground, hoping to avoid getting hit anymore than he already had. When he fell down though he landed in a pile of a semi-soft substance. He heard a squelch and thought 'oh no, Zubat and Golbat plus a cave means...urgh...well, at least they're gone now. I suppose that that's all there was in this cave anyway.' Ash then went into the next cave to his right and that's when he saw something that he would rather he hadn't, a colony of Lickitung going at it. 'okay, I don't want any of them...plus, if they see me they might...just then one of them saw him and its tongue darted out at him. He ran outside, jumped out into the air and called out "come on out, Charizard."

Charizard came out of its pokéball with a roar and, seeing Ash falling through the sky dived towards him. He then grabbed Ash in its hands and flew up, allowing Ash to catch its pokéball. Once Ash had it he told Charizard "now let me down on that ledge there," pointing at the ledge that he was on previously. Once he was on the ledge he said "thanks Charizard, you saved me again." Charizard let out a proud sound and Ash continued "but now I want to go and see what that mountain over there is like," pointing to another mountain. Charizard made another cry and turned around, allowing Ash to get on his back. Charizard then sort of fell over the edge of the ledge as a way to take off.


	3. Arrival of a Rivalry

After Ash had taken off on Charizard he remembered that he had fallen into a pile of Zubat and Golbat excrement and started looking for somewhere that he could clean his coat. Before he got to the mountain that he had indicated to Charizard he saw a river running through the mountainous region and he called out "hey Charizard, change of plans. We're going down to that river first." Charizard let out a roar indication his understanding of the order and changed direction.

Meanwhile the line into the Marshlands had dwindled considerably. "It's about time" Jessie said, annoyed at how long they'd been waiting to get into the Marshland Area of the Safari Zone. "I wouldn't be surprised if they had run out of Pokémon in this area by now."

"Now now, I'm sure that there's at least one rare Pokémon still in there" James said, trying to soothe his partners' notoriously quick temper.

"Yeah, he's right Jess. Besides, even if there isn't remember why we came here in the first place."

"You're right Meowth."

"Uh, remind me again why we came here?" James asked.

"Because, James, what is the reason we always lose in a fair fight against the twerp?"

"Uh, because our Pokémon can't stand up to Pikachu?"

"Exactly. That's why we came here, to capture strong Pokémon. It's all for the good of Team Rocket, even if we are doing things the legal way for once."

"I see" James replied. Just then they came to the front of the line. To their shock there was actually no staircase this time. there was a slide that continued to circle down until they got to a net at the bottom. They slid down and, when they got there, they were extremely disappointed. Even though it was called 'The Marshlands' in reality it was merely a bog with a few trees scattered about the place, although in the centre there was a large patch of grass, but they could see that there were only Carnivine, of which James already had one, and Roselia, which neither of them wanted. Seeing that there was nothing there for them they decided to go back up to the peak area in hopes of finding a different area that would meet their expectations.

By now Ashleigh had stood back up and decided that she would continue her search in the Forest Area in hopes of finding a Pokémon that she would be able to catch more easily. As she was walking she came across a river, she didn't know but it was actually part of the river that Ash was currently using to clean his coat. She bent down and brought some of the water up to her mouth and took a drink. She found that the water was some of the freshest that she had ever tasted. It was so good that she took another drink of it and, when she looked up, she saw a Surskit and a Mr. Mime drinking alongside each other. She though 'ohhh, that's so cute, seeing how two Pokémon that, by all rights, should be polar opposites, getting along so well with each other, although, I suppose that the same could be said for all of those Electabuzz and Bronzong as well.' Well, I guess that it's time for me to go on then.' Just as she was thinking this the Beldum that she had previously attempted to capture came down to the river to take a drink itself. Ashleigh thought 'this is great, another chance to catch Beldum.' She threw a pokéball when it bent down to drink and it went inside, the pokéball moved twice and then sprung open. The Beldum looked at her, smiled, and then sped off in the opposite direction. Ashleigh growled and cried out "damn it!" she then walked away from the river to look for another Pokémon as, due to her cry, all of the Pokémon near her part of the river had bolted in panic at the loud noise.

Half an hour later she saw a pack of ghost type Pokémon, which consisted of two Misdreavus, three Gastly and six Haunter, gathered in a semi-circle around a Pokémon. Ashleigh looked to see what it was and she saw that it was the Beldum that seemed to take a great deal of pleasure in the act of taunting her. She saw their eyes glow blue and then eleven black beams of energy were launched at Beldum, one from each of the ghost types. Ashleigh, without a second though, ran in front of Beldum and took the Psybeam attacks herself. "Beld?" Beldum said, asking why Ashleigh saved it after everything that it had put her through.

"I've decided that I want you on my team and I won't let anyone bully my Pokémon or my friends." She then turned to the ghost types and said "hey you! Eleven on one isn't fair."

"Misdreavus Mis Mis Misdreavus" the Misdreavus said, translating to "We don't care. That _thing_ came into our territory and we don't take very kindly to strange Pokémon. Especially psychic types."

"I see. So there should be no problem if Beldum just leaves your territory, right?" Misdreavus communicated that it was not the first time that Beldum had encroached upon their turf and they were sick of it. Ashleigh turned to Beldum and asked "is that true Beldum?"

"Bel Bel Beldum Bel" Buldum said, meaning "I just wanted to be friends. I'm really lonely, amongst my brothers and sisters I'm the only grey and yellow one, that caused them to ostracise me and..." it broke out into tears.

Ashleigh looked at the ghost types, who looked ashamed at their prior actions. She said "well then, do you want to come with me then? I have lots of Pokémon and they're all my friends."

"Bel?" Beldum asked, translated as "Really?"

"Of course, why did you think I was trying to catch you before?" Beldum indicated that he had no idea and that he was really scared of being in one of those things. "That's alright" Ashleigh said "you don't need to stay in the pokéball, you can walk alongside me if you want." Beldum made noises that indicated that it was well and truly happy with the arrangement. Ashley crouched down and touched Beldum on its head with the Safari Ball. This time it shook three times then pinged, signifying a capture. Ashley extended the hand that she was holding the Safari Ball in and said "alright, I caught a Beldum." Beldum then came out of the pokéball in a flash.

While Ashleigh was capturing Beldum Ash had finished washing his coat and asked "alright Charizard, can you hold your tail over this for a minute?" Charizard did so and a minute later the coat was completely dry again. Ash put it back on and then said "right, let's get to that mountain, after all, all that's around here are Krabby, Rattata, Raticate and I'm not sure but I think I saw a Sealeo poke its head up out of the water before. Ash then got on Charizard's back and Charizard took off, heading towards that mountain again.

Five minutes later Charizard reached the mountain that Ash had indicated and, after doing an aerial reconnaissance, he discovered that there was two entrances into a cave system in the mountain. One halfway up and another three quarters of the way to the top; Ash decided to go into the one that had its entrance halfway up. Charizard landed in the entrance to the cave and it automatically lit up due to the fire on the tip of Charizard's tail. Ash saw that the cave led in deeper into the mountain and decided that there was nothing to be gained by exiting the cave without further investigating it. He went into the cave with Charizard going first, lighting the way. Soon enough the cave opened up into a cavern. Inside there were numerous Pokémon, ranging from Chingling to Lunatone, Volbeat to Magneton and from Meditite to Metang. "Oh good lord. Look at all the Pokémon there are down there Charizard." Charizard let out a quite sound, realising very well that, even with its strength, there was no way that they would be able to defeat them all. Ash saw a narrow ledge that led to another entrance a few metres to his right. He said "Charizard return," pointing his pokéball at him. Charizard disappeared in a flash of red energy. Ash then waited for a few minutes while his eyes adjusted to the lack of light. When he could see again he stepped out onto the ledge and made his way across to the cave entrance. He peeked into the cave and saw a family of Lunatone. He threw a Safari Ball at the closest one, but it sensed it and moved out of the way. Its eyes then glowed blue as Ash was lifted up, off the ground and into the sky. When Ash was in the centre of the cavern the Lunatone dropped him. Ash quickly called out Charizard, who saved Ash from plunging to his death once again and, after using Dragonbreath against it, knocking it out Ash had him take him over to the cave, he quickly retrieved his pokéball from the ground near the entrance. He then got back on Charizard and Charizard flew back the way they had come and burst out into the open. Ash had Charizard fly him back to the entrance to the Mountain Area and then recalled him. When Ash had been let down he picked up the Safari Ball that he had thrown, said "come on out" and threw it into the air. A red beam of energy appeared out of it and, on the ground, a lime green Larvitar manifested.

Just as it did Ashleigh appeared from the Forest Area and, seeing Ash's capture, exclaimed "God Damn It! I just can't catch a break with you, can I?"

"What?" Ash asked.

"Arise" Ashleigh said as she threw her pokéball in the air and, in a similar fashion to Ash's Larvitar, a Beldum appeared in a flash of red energy in front of Ashleigh.

"You caught a Beldum Ashleigh? That's so cool."

"Yeah, thanks. Congrats with catching Larvitar." The Pokémon had gone up to each other and started a conversation. "Well, it looks like those two will get on just peachy, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. Well, I'm going to go to the Desert Area now."

"I think that I'll head off to the swamp area myself."

"See ya later then."

"Yeah, later." Ashleigh said as the twins walked off in separate directions.


	4. Double The Capture, Double The Fun

As Ash reached the end of the dark corridor that he had been walking down, for who knows how long, he closed his eyes in hopes of getting rid of the temporary blindness that he was feeling due to the sudden change in lighting. Eventually his eyes adjusted to the deserts lighting conditions. When they had he realised that the area was aptly named. The area was just one great expanse of sand. In the distance he could faintly see that there was a cliff face at the other end. He said to himself "right, I have absolutely no desire to walk all that way." He then grabbed Charizard's pokéball, released it, got on its back and took off. As he flew across the desert he saw a lot of Pokémon that he had seen before, among them were a lot of Trapinch, Hippopotas, a single Vibrava which he tried to catch but it somehow managed to dig away before he could throw the Safari Ball. He saw some Fearow in the distance but decided that if he really wanted one he could just as easily catch it on the way back. Closer to the cliff face he saw some Cubone, Marowak, Sandshrew and Sandslash. He saw a blue line in the distance and deduced that it must somehow connect to the river that he had used to wash his coat in earlier. When he reached the end of the desert he was surprised to find, not just another dead end, but another staircase. This one lead to the Marshland that he and Ashleigh had previously avoided; he thought 'ah screw it, I might as well at least take a looksee.' He then got off Charizard on the ledge, returned it to its pokéball and then went through the entrance to the Marshland Area.

Meanwhile Ashleigh was having a similar amount of luck. So far she'd seen Jigglypuff, Drowzee, Weepinbell and a few Paras, but that was it. She was getting well and truly fed up with the Area she continued on in the hope of finding something even remotely powerful, but, no such luck. She kept on walking through the Swamp Area, but she still kept on running into only truly weak and common Pokémon. She heard someone say that there were Dratini and Dragonair in the area, but she'd been fishing for over half an hour and she'd only managed to hook a single Magikarp. She decided to go for a walk around in the hope that she might find something that interested her. She found nothing in ten minutes and decided to go to the Marshlands. She'd heard that, despite what the man that they'd talked to earlier had said, that there were actually some powerful Pokémon in the Area, so she went to the entrance that she had entered into the Swamp Area from and exited the area. She then turned right when she exited the corridor and entered the Marshlands. When she got there she immediately saw a lot of Seviper, Croagunk, Muk and Weezing, but most of those already had trainers trying to catch them and those that didn't, she'd already caught. So she moved on. Soon enough she came to the river that seemed to run through all of the areas and got out her fishing rod again. Soon enough she'd hooked a Barboach. Knowing her brothers love of using Pikachu to finish off a battle she considered catching it as a way to counter his electrical attacks, but then she remembered that it also knew attacks of types other than electric, so she threw it back. She cast off again, but this time it was a Poliwag. She immediately placed it back in the river because she already had both Politied and Poliwrath. She let her line fly further than it had before and that time she hooked one that gave her quite a fight, but eventually she reeled it in. It was yet another Magikarp. This one though had a look in its eyes that just screamed 'battle'. So she drew out Toxicroak's pokéball, released it and said "Toxicroak, use Poison Jab on Magikarp." As Toxicroak charged up its poison jab attack magikarp moved in and used Flail after using Tackle to increase its power. Needless to say, Ashleigh was over the moon with happiness with the fight that magikarp was putting up as, even though it did very little damage in itself, it had managed to prevent Toxicroak from using its attack. Magikarp moved to use the same combination again, but this time Ashleigh was ready for it. As it flew through the air Ashleigh said "Toxicroak, use Poison Sting." A lot of purple barbs flew from Toxicroak's mouth, hitting Magikarp and stopping it over the ground. It came to a rapid stop and, when it became unconscious, Ashleigh threw her remaining Safari Ball at it. It was easily captured and she held her pokéball in a similar fashion to how she had done with her capture of Beldum and said "alright, I caught a Magikarp." Just then Ash came upon his sister and said "congratulations, you caught a Magikarp."

"Thanks bro, so what've you caught since I last saw you?"

"Uhhh...nothing."

Ashleigh had a sweatdrop form on the side of her head and she said "then you don't really have any right making fun of me then, do you?"

"I wasn't making fun, Magikarp evolve into Gyarados and a lot of the elite trainers have them, even Lance."

"Oh. Then, thanks, I guess. Well, I've used my two Safari Balls, I'll see you outside."

"Yeah. See ya." Saying this Ash went off to look for some more Pokémon in the Marshlands and Ashleigh went back to the Peak Area before exiting the Safari Zone.

While Ash had been flying over the desert and Ashleigh was regretting her decision to go through the swamp area, Jessie, James and Meowth were having quite a bit more success than the Ketchum siblings. Upon exiting the Marshland Area Jessie had become the object of affection of a Magnemite, and James, when he went to take a drink from the river that keeps on appearing, he saw a Spheal. The Spheal seemed to want to get a drink from the river but was afraid of the Fearow that always seemed to know when it wanted a drink. James gave it some of the water from his canteen that he had just refilled with water from the river and, as thanks, the Spheal asked to go with James, who immediately accepted. After James' capture Jessie and James came to a disagreement about which area they should go to next. James wanted to go to the forested area, where he had heard there were powerful psychic _and_ ghost types, and Jessie wanted to go to the Rocky Beach Area so she could work on his tan.

When James got to the forest area he saw that there were actually very few psychic types there, and those that were, were with Electabuzz, completely eliminating any chance that he might have of catching them. He didn't give up though and soldiered on, looking for powerful Pokémon; or at least those with the potential to be so. Soon enough he found a pack of Misdreavus together. He called out his Carnivine in order to battle them. One of them sensed his presence, but mostly ignored it, that was, until James called out Carnivine. As James told Carnivine to use Bullet Seed Misdreavus used Will-O-Wisp, causing Carnivine to get severely burned and knocking it out. James recalled Carnivine and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the Misdreavus. When he sat down panting he saw a flock of Pidgey, remembering how strong Ash's Pidgeot was when it evolved, he threw his remaining Safari Ball at one on the lowest branch. It fell back down to the ground, shook a few times, and then pinged, indicating a capture. The Pidgey, however, noticed that one of their number was missing; so James picked up the Safari Ball and then hightailed it out of there.

Jessie, for her part, was having nowhere near the troubles that James was. She was in her bikini, lying on a deckchair thoughtfully provided by the company that ran the Johto Safari Zone, snoozing. As she was sleeping though, a Gible crept up to her and was about to take a bite out of her hair when a Budew came along, saw what it was about to do and used Sleep Powder on it, knocking it out. It then moved it away from Jessie before using Energy Ball to send it flying far, far, away. It then walked back to Jessie, climbed up onto her and rested its head against her tit, using it as a pillow. When Jessie woke up she saw the sleeping Pokémon and, thinking of how good it would be in contests, tapped it on its head with her remaining Safari Ball, got dressed, and then went back to the Peak Area to meet up with James. When she got there she saw James and Meowth walking towards the exit and she met them as they were about to leave the Safari Zone and then they exited together, committing not one criminal act the entire time that they were in the Safari Zone.

Ash, in the meantime had just about had enough of his bad luck and decided that the next area he went to would be the last. He decided to enter into the Plains Area of the Johto Safari Zone. When he got there he was very pleased with his decision. There were many different Pokémon species present in this part of the Safari Zone. They ranged from Rattata to Stantler. There were even evolved species such as Houndoom and Manectric. Ash immediately discarded those from his sight though as he thought that it would be more fun to raise a Pokémon from its original evolution rather than catching it fully evolved as it would allow him to see how it grows and changes. He decided that there was no better way to decide which Pokémon that he wanted to catch than to just go for a walk through them all. Before he got too far though a Shinx came up to him and started rubbing its head against his leg. Ash decided right then and there that that Shinx was going to be a part of his team. He crouched down next to it and asked it "do you want to come with me?" Shinx replied in the affirmative and Ash tapped it on its head with his remaining Safari Ball and it pinged immediately, Shinx not even offering up a token resistance. Ash then left the Plains Area and then went to meet up with his sister in the main building that served as both entrance and exit to the Safari Zone.

A/N

Please review my work guys and gals. As a writer I need to know what you like about my stories and, in my opinion, more importantly, what you don't like.

P.S.

Please send the don'ts in a private message.


	5. Hoenn Together

When Ashleigh saw Ash exit the Safari Zone she went up to him and asked "so, what did you get as your last Pokémon?"

"I got a Shinx, you?"

"Magikarp."

"Magikarp! Really?"

"Yeah, I'm actually really glad that I did, it's actually pretty strong, for a Magikarp."

"Eh?"

"What do you mean 'eh'?"

"Well, normally one wouldn't use 'Magikarp' and 'strong' in the same sentence."

"Yeah, I know, neither would I; but this one used Tackle to empower its next Flail attack."

"Okay, now I can kind of believe you...although I didn't think that Magikarp as a species had enough brainpower to come up with that strategy, hell, I know a lot of people who wouldn't even try such a thing."

"Yeah, I'm also familiar with a few. So, what do we do now?"

"Hmm... I suppose we could head over to the Unova Region, check out the competition there."

"Nah, I've been there before, there's really nothing to write home about."

"Really?"

"Yeah, they've got a few strong Pokémon there but I've got a better idea."

"Yeah?" Ash asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. How about we head on over to the Hoenn Region, re-challenge all of the Gym's there and compete in the Ever Grande Conference," she paused "see which one of us is truly the superior trainer."

"I guess so. But to do that we would have to set a condition. One that I really _don't_ want to even suggest."

Ashleigh frowned and asked "what's that?"

"Up until the Ever Grande Conference we will only use Pokémon that we have caught on this journey through the Hoenn Region...and in the Ever Grande Conference, we will only use at most six of the Pokémon that are stored, for me, at Professor Oak's Lab and, for you, at Professor Ivy's Lab."

"Six huh..."

"Yeah."

"Alright."

"Well, we better contact our parents, the Professors and get some boat tickets."

Jessie had overheard their conversation and, when James and Meowth came over to her she dragged them over to the corner of the room and whispered "hey, get this. I just heard that the twerp is going to the Hoenn Region again...leaving Pikachu at Professor Oak's."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking Jessie?" James said.

"Yeah. Let's follow the twerp, remember, he caught a Larvitar and that bratty sister of his has a Beldum."

"Those would make a great gift for the boss. Especially now that they've perfected that evolution ray" Meowth said.

"They did, did they?"

"Yeah, it was in the Team Rocket Gazette."

"I see. Good to know."

"Yeah. Anyway, so, are we stowing away again?"

"No. Thanks to us Team Rocket has a presence in the Hoenn Region. We can just take the Team Rocket Ferry there. It should leave in an hour anyway."

"Alright, let's do it."

Jessie, James and Meowth then left the Safari Zone entrance room and went to the docks located about a half hour away. Ash and Ashleigh were done with their calls and contacted the ferry company and found out that there was only one heading to the Hoenn Region before they closed shop for the day. They requested that they be allowed to board that ferry, even though the agent was vehemently advising against it. They got to the ferry just in the nick of time, boarded, and took a seat near the Bow of the boat.

Five hours later they arrived in Littleroot Town. Luckily nothing had happened to them, or any of the other passengers as the ferry that they were on was owned and operated by Team Rocket Agents. The Ketchum siblings decided that they would go and say hello to Professor Birch. On their way they saw a restaurant that was selling toasted ham and cheese sandwiches. Ashleigh, being a huge fan of them, literally dragged Ash into it and they had dinner. When they were done they realised that it was past five o'clock. They decided that it was likely pointless trying to reach Professor Birch now, so they found a really cheap motel and stayed there for the night. The next morning they went to the Professor's Lab and knocked on the door. The Professors assistant opened it and asked "who are you?"

"Hey, I'm Ash, I went through here a few years ago."

"Oh yeah, the kid with the Pikachu."

"Yeah. That's me."

$"Hey, is that you Ash?" a voice called out coming from down the road. 

"What was...?" Ash started to ask as he turned around. When he had done so he saw a green haired ten year old running up to them. He asked "Max...is that you?"

"Yep. It's me alright. Today I'm getting my first Pokémon."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I bet I can guess which one...Treecko right?"

"Well yes. how'd you know?"

"Come on Max, half the time we were together you were going on about how much you wanted a Treecko, and now that you can get one you won't?"

"Eh, fair enough. So tell me, who's your girlfriend?"

"Wha..." Ash's eyes widened as he realised just who his friend was talking about. "Ashleigh is not my girlfriend Max. She's my sister."

"Your sister? But she looks to be your age."

"Yeah, she's my twin to be exact."

"Your twin?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell us that you had a twin sister while we were travelling with you?"

"Well, I only found out a month or so ago."

"I see. Long lost twins fall in love but are separated by fate...or, at least that's what May would say."

"What?"

"Yeah, didn't she tell you? She's decided to try her hand at being a writer."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You can't just go from League to League forever you know."

"Hmmm..."

"Well Max, what do you say that we get to you choosing your Pokémon?" Professor Birch asked.

"Oh yes please" Max said.

They all went inside and Professor Birch pressed a few buttons and some pokéballs came up, out of three chutes made in the table. "Choose one" Professor Birch said.

"I choose...Treecko" Max said, picking up a pokéball from the bench. He then released it and said alright, I got a Treecko!" jumping into the air with his hand raised above his head in a 'V' for victory.

"Hey Professor Ash reached the top four in the Sinnoh League and Ashleigh reached top four in the Unova League. We might be able to entrust them with 'those' Pokémon...what do you say?"

Ashleigh frowned and asked "'those Pokémon'? what are you talking about?"

"Well you see we've got these two Pokémon that are too strong for beginner trainers and we can't keep them here in the lab. They've destroyed the fences and quite a few trees that were planted specifically to house and treat Pokémon not from this region. Quite frankly, we don't know what to do with them."

"That's not quite right though, is it?" Professor Birch half asked, half stated.

"No Professor, you're right. We do have a theory."

"Well, what is it?" Ashleigh asked.

"Well, we believe that they just want to be stronger. The trees were an acceptable loss, but when they destroyed the fences they allowed the Water Pokémon to intermingle with the Grass and Fire Pokémon. If they had continued on they might have tried to escape from the compound completely. There really is no other viable solution. We _need_ to get Torchic and Mudkip away from here. We were about to contact May and Brendan, but you two apparently are more than capable. Besides, May and Brendan chose Torchic and Mudkip as their respective starters anyway."

"Well thank you then. We'd be honoured."

"Yeah. That's great" Ash said as Professor Birch left the room to get the pokéballs of the problem Torchic and Mudkip. The three trainers then left Professor Birch's Lab and walked out of town. A few minutes into the trip Ash asked "so Max, what've you and May been up to recently?"

"Well, I've been helping Dad out at the Gym in Petalburg city and as for May, she's taking a holiday in Sootopolis City."

"Really?" Ash made a sound of surprise "I thought that she'd be off competing in the Sinnoh Contests by now."

"Yeah well she got into the top four in the Johto Grand Festival and I guess she thought that now's as good a time as any."

"Sounds like someone else we know, doesn't it" Ashleigh asked.

"Hey! Quit it" Ash shot back.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're on about." Ash growled about to say something when Ashleigh realised what Max had said about his Father. She exclaimed "Your father is a gym leader!"

"Uh. Yeah. Didn't Ash tell you that?"

"No, he didn't" Ashleigh said, looking at her brother with eyes that promised lots of pain later.

Just then a Poochyena walked by a few metres in front of them. Ash said "Hey, a Poochyena!"

"Poochyena! I'm going to capture it" Max said. He then retrieved Treecko's pokéball from his belt and released his starter Pokémon, saying "Go, Treecko." Then he asked himself "so, what attacks does Treecko know?...AH! I know. Use Absorb." Nothing happened. "What? Oh right, Treecko probably doesn't know Absorb yet." Ash and Ashleigh fell down in amazement at the lengths of obviousness that the statement contained. By this time the Poochyena had decided that what was going on was not worth his time, so he started to walk off the path. Max called out "wait Poochyena." The doglike Pokémon looked back and decided that he might as well give this, seemingly foolish, human another chance as he seemed to be smart. "Treecko, use Pound" Max ordered with confidence. Treecko rushed at Poochyena, twisted around, and slammed its tail into the Poochyena. The Poochyena was sent back a few feet due to the force of the hit. It hit back with a Tackle attack however. Treecko was sent flying this time.

"Uh, Max. You know that you can tell your pokemon to dodge, right?"

"Uhhh...of course I did" Max said as he started to look like a deerling caught in a cars headlights, clearly having forgotten that. "Treecko, use Pound again." Treecko charged at Poochyena again, this time twisting more rapidly, and hit the Poochyena with its tail, sending it flying into a tree. When it slid off the tree it was unconscious. "Pokéball, go" Max said, throwing a pokéball at the downed Pokémon. The ball shifted once, twice, thrice and then pinged, indicating that Max had successfully captured Poochyena. "Alright, I caught Poochyena" Max said, striking the same pose that he had done before.

"Well done Max, you caught your first Pokémon, and you did a lot better job of it than I did."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Really?" Ashleigh asked.

"Yeah."

"Alright, spill it. I haven't heard this one yet."

"Yeah, well there's a reason for that. I saw this Pidgey you see. Then, when I threw a pokéball at it..."

"Wait; you..."

"Yes, yes, I know. Anyway, it escaped from the pokéball and used Sand Attack to get away. A few seconds later I thought that I saw it again, so I threw a rock at it to weaken it as Pikachu was not exactly friendly at that time. Anyway, that wasn't a Pidgey. It was a Spearow. As it turns out it was the leader of a flock of Spearow and they all attacked me. In the end I ended up borrowing someone's bike to try and outrun them. In the end I failed and Pikachu saved me."

"Well, if you were like that then, then I must be destined to be a greater trainer than even you" Max said.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Max."

"I wasn..."

"Alright then, how about a battle?"

"I don't think that that's a..." Ashleigh tried to interject.

"Alright I accept" Max said.

"Ash, you've only got pokemon that are, by their very nature..." Just then, from her bag a bright, white, light burst out. Out of Ash's a, no less bright, but yellow, light burst out. "What the..." Ashleigh started to ask but then remembered the eggs that they had received from Liza. "The eggs!" she and Ash said, remembering at the same time. They immediately removed their bags from their backs, put them on the ground and retrieved the eggs from them. As they picked them up they cracked and then shattered completely. Where they had been holding eggs previously, the twins were now holding a Charmander each. Although there was something weird about Ash's; Instead of the red that Ashleigh's was, the one that Ash was holding on to was a weird yellow colour. "Hey why is yours..." Ashleigh started to ask.

"Yellow?" Ash finished.

"I can answer that!" Max announced.

"Really! Why?" Ashleigh and Ash asked simultaneously.

"Wow, you really are twins. Well, anyway, the reason that your Charmander is yellow, Ash, is that it is considered to be 'shiny'."

"Shiny? What is that?" Ash asked.

"It's where a Pokémon is of a different colour to the rest of its kind."

"I see. You mean like my Noctowl?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"Okay then, so do you want to battle against Charmander then?"

"Sure. The Grass Type Starter Pokémon of Hoenn against the Kanto Fire Type Starter; it's almost like a battle between countries."

"Hmm" Ashleigh said to herself, thinking back to the conversation that she and her brother were having with the man in the Johto Safari Zone.

Ash walked a few metres away, still holding Charmander and Max walked in the opposite direction with Treecko. "You can go first" Ash said as he put Charmander down. Charmander turned around, instinctively wanting to battle and looking at its opponent.

"Treecko use pound" Max ordered.

"Charmander, dodge and use scratch when it's next to you" Ash said. Treecko, hearing the order given to its opponent tried to stop, but all it succeeded in doing was tripping over and ensuring that the enemy's tactic came to fruition. Charmander used scratch on it, knocking it out. Ash looked at Max and said "Let this be a lesson to you Max, don't try and battle with an already exhausted Pokémon."

"Treecko!" Max yelled, rushing over to his first Pokémon, he slid down next to it, held it to him and asked "are you okay?"

"It'll be fine Max, you just need to get it to the Pokémon Centre in Oldale Town."

"Alright" Max said as he returned Treecko to its pokéball. He, along with Ash and his sister then continued on to Oldale Town.


	6. The Betrayal

First off, to answer the question of Dragonfire97, yes. Clearly. I just made Max's Treecko exceptionally weak, that's all.

When they got to Oldale Town Ash was surprised at the amount that it had expanded since he was last there. As they headed to the Pokémon Centre Ash asked Max "hey Max, when did Oldale Town get so big?"

"Oh yeah, you probably don't know, do you?"

"Know? Know what?"

"In Hoenn there's been a rapid increase, both in normal industry as well as within the Pokémon League."

"Really? Why? And how can we not know about it?"

"Well, maybe Hoenn news isn't broadcast in Kanto. Recently there's been an increase in Team Rocket presence in the Hoenn Region and that has, unfortunately, lead to a lot of distrust between Hoenn citizens and people from other countries. They still tolerate those that are registered for the Pokémon league, but barely."

"I see" Ash said, grasping the implications immediately.

"Well, that's what my dad says at any rate."

Ash and Ashleigh groaned in frustration at what their friend said. Ashleigh said "well, we will have to wait and see for ourselves then."

"Yeah" Ash said as they arrived at the Pokémon Centre. "Hey Max, why don't you go on in, my sister and I need to talk."

"Alright" Max said, entering the Pokémon Centre to get Treecko treated.

"Alright Ash, out with it."

"If the political situation is like that then we _really_ shouldn't be here right now. If they distrust peoplr from all regions, what do you think their reaction to a Kanto native will be?"

"I know Ash, believe me, I know. But, we both already have Team Rocket after us, for one reason or another, so maybe our being here might just be a good thing."

"What do you mean?"

Ashleigh smiled in a way that Ash recognised as a 'I've got a brilliant idea' smile. She said "What do you think would happen if we made our presence in the Hoenn Region known. That way we'd attract the attention of Team Rocket and, hopefully, divert enough of their resources that the police would be able to manage the problem more effectively."

"Hmm, I don't know Ashleigh. For this to work we'd need a lot more Pokémon than we have with us now, and even then, they'd have to be our strongest. For now there's only two things that we can do. One is we sign up for the Pokémon League, compete in the Ever Grande Conference. Number two, go back to Kanto and inform the authorities about the situation here in Hoenn.

"Come on, you _know_ that you like my idea, right?"

"Well, I must say, it does have its merits alright; tell you what, we sign up to the Pokémon League, and then, when we've each got at least five badges we meet up somewhere, I don't know, say...Maisie Island and discuss what we should do from there."

Unbeknownst to the twins, Max had come out of the Pokémon Centre, having left his Pokémon with Nurse Joy, and come to look for his friends. Max heard the last part of their discussion and immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion. That Ash and Ashleigh were spies sent to gather intelligence on the strength of the trainers in Hoenn in preparation for an invasion. He decided then and there that he would travel with them as far as Petalburg City and then give them up to the local Officer Jenny, after all, he and her daughter had grown up together. Ashleigh said "I must say, I do like that idea the best."

"Alright then, we'll do that."

"Okay, we need to go to the Pokémon Centre to sign up."

"Yeah" Ash said as he and his sister went into the Pokémon Centre to sign up for the Pokémon League.

After Nurse Joy had finished entering all of their details into the Hoenn Pokémon League system, she said "that's odd."

"What is Nurse Joy?" Ash and Ashleigh asked at the same time.

"Well, the system is telling me that you already meet the entry requirements to compete in the Ever Grande Conference."

"Well, we have actually gone through the Hoenn Region before."

"I see. That makes sense. But that also means that you do not need to compete against any gym leaders to enter into the Conference."

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Ashleigh asked.

"I see" the Nurse Joy said, even though she clearly did not. "Well, in that case then you're more than welcome to go through again...here are your pokedex's back."

Nurse Joy handed the twins their pokedex's and Ashleigh said "thank you very much Nurse Joy."

"Do you want me to look at your Pokémon before you leave?"

"No, I'm good" Ashleigh replied.

"Yeah, sure, my Charmander just hatched and I battled against Max's Treecko with it."

"I see. That explains it then."

"Explains what?"

"The claw marks on Torchic. I grew up in this area and none of the Pokémon around here are capable of leaving such injuries."

"Wow, you can tell which Pokémon did what, just by what their attack left behind?"

"Well, it's really easy if you're very familiar with the Pokémon in question or the Pokémon in the area if there is something out of the ordinary like there was with this case."

"I see, so it depends on familiarity. Thank you, that's something that I can work on, on my journey."

"I'm glad to have helped. So can I have your Pokémon?"

"Sure, here you go" Ash said as he handed the pokéballs containing Pokémon over to the Nurse Joy.

"Well, I'm off" Ashleigh said.

"Really? You don't want to sit and wait a few hours? Why am I not surprised?"

"Geez, I don't know bro, maybe because you'd do the same if you could."

"Nyeh, I suppose you're right. Well, see you later."

"Yeah, later bro" Ashleigh said as she left the Pokémon Centre.

Max saw his chance of giving the two trainers over to the Officer Jenny in his hometown slipping away, so he decided that, if he couldn't get them both, he would at the very least get one of the Ketchum's. He ran to the police station in Oldale Town and asked for Officer Jenny. She eventually came down to see what all the ruckus was about. She asked "what seems to be the problem young man?"

"Ah, Officer Jenny, I'm glad you're actually here. I know where there are two Kanto spies."

"What? That's a very serious allegation young man. If you're lying."

"I'm not, I swear."

"Alright, where are they?"

"One of them just left the Pokémon Centre but the other one should still be there."

"Alright, you're coming with me" Officer Jenny said as she walked out of the station. She got on a motorbike and started the siren. Max got into the sidecar. They sped to the Pokémon Centre and Officer Jenny strode in and then turned to Max and asked "alright then, who is it?"

"It's him" Max said, pointing at Ash.

"What? What's me?" Ash asked, seeing Max pointing at him and hearing what he said.

"Alright young man, you'll have to come with me to the station."

"Alright, why?" Ash asked in a voice filled with apprehension.

"Because you've been accused of being a spy for Kanto."

"What! That's preposterous. I'm no spy."

"That's just what a guilty person would say."

"No, it's what an innocent person would say."

"I disagree. You're already under arrest, if you refuse to comply I'll add an additional charge of resisting arrest."

"What? Resisting arrest? I'm not resisting anything."

"Alright mister, you're coming with me. You have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney...(you know the rest.)" when Officer Jenny was done reading Ash his rights, she turned to Max and asked "alright, I've got this one, who's the other one?"

"His sister. Ashleigh Ketchum."

"Ketchum? Where have I heard that name before?...hmmm...ah well, it doesn't matter. So, you're sister's a spy as well, is she?"

"What? Ashleigh's as much of a spy as I am."

"So that's a yes then" Officer Jenny said, not wanting to hear anything that Ash may have said by way of protest.

Two hours later at the Oldale Town police station Ash was being guarded by two officers who hadn't said a word for as long as they had been watching him. Finally Ash asked "hey, in Kanto I would be entitled to a phone call, does the same law exist here?"

"Yeah, sure, make your call" the guard said, giving Ash his phone that the guard had been given in case Ash asked for it. Ash called Ashleigh and he said "hey, mum..."

On the other end Ashleigh asked "What?" confused with why Ash was calling her their mother.

"Now now, just calm down." he heard his sister go through a calming exercise. Ash then continued when his sister was able to think logically "alright, now don't go crazy on me, alright. I've been arrested as a spy for Kanto."

Ashleigh's eyes widened as she asked "do you think that they think that...?"

"Yeah. Max told them."

"I see."

"Alright, contact Professor Oak if you think that it will do any good."

"Right, I'll do that."

"Be good" Ash said, rather ironically, all things considered.

On the other end of the line, after Ash had hung up, Ashleigh's eyes took on a dangerous glint. "Be good" she said, she smirked evilly "It looks like they need a reminder as to why the Ketchum name is feared."

Ash though 'oh Arceus, I hope she doesn't do anything too crazy.'

Six months later...

"After a five month long trial and despite testimony given by numerous elite trainers from multiple regions, including this one, I, regrettably, must rule that the charges levied against Ash Ketchum are just too severe to be overlooked. As such I am sentencing him to serve your remaining life in Steel Penitentiary without the possibility of parole. Your pokemon will be given to your closest living relative or, failing that, released back into the wild."

"No..." Ash said after hearing the ruling.

"That can't be..." Delia Ketchum said in as much disbelief as her son was in.

Professor Oak put his arm around her shoulder and said "don't worry Delia, we'll appeal to the Pokémon league to put pressure on in the hopes of an early release."

"I don't think that will help any" Delia said, tears running down her face.

Two long hours later Delia and Professor Oak were exiting the courthouse and someone wearing sunglasses came up to them, shoved a note into Delia's hand, and then quickly slipped away as quickly as they came. Delia looked at the note and then folded it back up and put it away.

Two hours later Delia and Professor Oak were sitting at the table in the dining room in the hotel room that they had booked. They were waiting for the one that left the note. Soon enough someone opened the door and let themselves in. The person asked "so Mum, what was the verdict?"

"They convicted him Ashleigh." Delia started crying again. Ashleigh rushed over to her mother and hugged her. She was also crying as the locking away of her twin, just after they had found each other, was like stealing away part of her that had just been found. It left a hole in her heart as large as Snorlax's appetite. "I'll get him back Mum. I'll get Ash back if it's the last thing I do."

"Don't you dare Ashleigh."

"What?" Ashleigh asked, her eyes widening in confusion.

"The last thing that Ash would want is for you to become a criminal, just for his sake. You know this."

"I know. I know. But still..." Ashleigh said with a pained expression on her face as she gripped her heart. She then fainted.

"Ashleigh!" Delia exclaimed as her daughter collapsed into her arms.

"She'll be fine Delia" Professor Oak said, trying to console the inconsolable mother. "You were right though, the last thing that Ash would want is for his sister to spend her life worrying over him. Though the way things are, she'll be being looked for next. Ash's trial has at least allowed her trail to go cold."

"There is that I suppose. Well, I guess that she'll have to change her name and, at the very least, dye her hair."

Professor Oak sighed and said "that can be left for another time. For now, we need to try and somehow get over Ash's conviction."

Another six months later Ash was sitting down next to the wall of the yard of the Steel Penitentiary and saw a Riolu come up to him. He said "hey there little buddy, how are you?"

The Riolu looked at Ash curiously and said "Ri, Riol Ri?"

Ash sighed and said "I'm here for no good reason. They think that they did something I didn't do...although I suppose that that's been said before."

"Ri" the Riolu said, agreeing with Ash.

"Hey" Ash said, laughingly, "you don't have to agree with me that easily."

"Ri?" the Riolu said, thinking 'this guy's different somehow.'

Just then a guard blew a whistle, signifying that the time in the yard was completed for the day. Ash told the Riolu "Well, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Ri Ri" the Riolu said, happily.

When Ash went inside he thought to himself "well, I've got the time, I might as well study something to keep my mind active." He then asked one of the guards "hey, Louie, is it possible for me to get a book from the library?"

"Yeah, sure thing. Thanks for that advice that you gave me about that problem I was having with my Pikachu."

"No problem, it took me a while to get a way for my old partner to counter rock and ground type Pokémon too."

"Well, come with me, I'll take you to the library." Ash followed him to the prison library. Once there Ash started to browse through the library. It was sorted into categories. He started in the fantasy section but ended up in the history section. An hour into his search he found a book titled Aura and its Applications by Sir Aaron 'Sir Aaron' Ash thought 'this book was written by Sir Aaron. I wonder...' he then picked it up and said "right, I'm done" to the guard, Louie. "Alright, back to your cell now."

"Sure thing" Ash replied.

Six months later and Ash had finished the book written by Sir Aaron. It had contained exercises to build upon the natural talents of an Aura sensitive person. Ash had completed them in less than three months. He then returned the book and looked for other aura-related reading material and found it in a book entitled Aura and the Aura Guardian by Dame Jezebel. He was just about finished with that book too. Whereas the book by Sir Aaron was about the practical uses of Aura the book by Dame Jezebel was about the theories and beliefs of the Aura Guardians, as well as a brief history. At the end of the book there was a message 'for more information on the history of the Aura Guardians, read Aura, The End and The Beginning. He had also told his Riolu friend about the exercises as well. Ash by now had a really good friendship with the Emanation Pokémon.

One month later Ash had finished the book by Dame Jezebel and had started his search for the book mentioned at the end of the previous book.

In a month's time he still hadn't found it, so he started to search outside the prison for the book. Eventually he found it. It was in the Unova Region. He thought to himself 'that's just great. The Unova Region! If things haven't changed much in the past year, which I seriously doubt, then there's no way that I'll be able to get access to that book...he sighed and said "guess I really will have to..."

Two months later, when Ash was in the yard a Skarmory flew by overhead. Ash thought 'a Skarmory! That'll do.' He then stood up, raised his hand into the air, sending out his Aura to the overhead Skarmory. All of the guards trained their guns on him and one shouted "what are you doing?" another yelled "get down, all of you." Ash remained standing. Skarmory dove at the ground, landing beside Ash. Ash, quickly got onto Skarmory's back, said "adios amigos", waved goodbye and then Skarmory took off. Ash sent out his aura senses that he had worked on for the past year and a half and, eventually, found Riolu. It was about two kilometres away and being attacked by a Steelix. It was dodging the attacks spectacularly, but that was really about the extent of what it could do. Ash said "alright Skarmory, let's go two kilometres in the two o'clock direction." Skarmory let out a cry as it turned in the direction that Ash had told it to go. A minute later they were upon Riolu's position. Ash jumped down, off Skarmory's back and, fell to the ground. He used his aura to slow his descent and he landed in front of his friend softly. When he was on the ground he immediately erected an aura shield between them and the Steelix. "Man, you had me worried there for a second Riolu. I'm really glad you're okay" Ash said, clutching the Riolu to his chest. Ash jumped from cliff-face to cliff-face, using aura to further empower his jumps until he got to the top of one of the canyon islands where the Skarmory that he had commandeered had landed, waiting for Ash. "Right, the first thing I'm going to need now is pokéballs and I can't exactly just go into the closest Pokémon Market and buy them. For one thing I don't have any money, secondly, now, like it or not, I'm a fugitive. Well, I should be able to reach Johto on Skarmory, although it will be a tough flight for it. I don't really have much of a choice though. If I'm going to survive I'll need to go and see Kurt." He then took off to Lavaridge Town, and then kept on going until he reached the coastline. Once there he rested for a single night and then took off, out over the ocean.


	7. Family Ties

The next day, just before Dawn, Ash touched down on the coast of the Johto Region. The first thing he did was get off Skarmory's back and rub the side of its head, saying "thanks Skarmory, I really appreciate everything that you've done for me and Riolu. You can go back to your friends now." Skarmory shook its head though, causing Ash to ask "What? Do you want to come with me instead then?" Skarmory nodded. Ash said "Well, that's even more reason for me to see Kurt then" before leaving the beach asking Skarmory to hide out and that he would be back that night. Skarmory took off to one of the nearby mountains. Ash said to himself "now, Kurt."

Twelve minutes later he was on the outskirts of Azalea Town. He then, in the pre-dawn light, crept from shadow to shadow heading towards where he knew Kurt's workshop to be. Soon enough he was outside Kurt's residence. He knocked on the door. Nobody answered. He knocked again. This time Kurt, bleary-eyed, opened the door and asked "who's there?"

"Hey Kurt, long time no-see."

"Ash? Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Wait, I thought that you were in a prison in the Hoenn Region?"

"Yeah, I was."

"Then how come you're here?"

"I escaped" Ash said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which, in fairness, it was.

"Well, I can see that. What I meant was, why did you come to see me?"

"I find myself with the need for some pokéballs and I can't exactly go up to the nearest Pokémon Market and ask for some _now,_ can I?"

"I suppose not. Alright, I've got some Apricorn Balls now, but you'll need to let me make a few more for you."

"Sure thing, thanks" Ash said as he passed out from exhaustion. Kurt caught him, and, knowing why he had probably fainted, let him sleep, putting him in the guest room.

Kurt thought 'he'll also need somewhere to store them, if I know Pokémon trainers, he'll no doubt be catching more than six Pokémon, and he's going to need somewhere to store them. Well, it's a good thing the 'he' is coming here.' Kurt then went to his workshop and started working on Ash's order.

Around 12 o'clock Ash woke up, when he did it was to find that Riolu was lying next to him on a bed in some strange room that he'd never been in before. He thought 'where am I' and then he remembered that he had gone to Kurt's place in Azalea Town. "Oh, right" he said aloud. He then picked up his sleeping Riolu, got up, and then returned Riolu to the bed. He then left the room. When he got to the dining room Maisy was making sandwiches for lunch. Ash said "hey, Maisy, it's been a while."

"Ash, you're up!" Maisy exclaimed.

"Yep, up and at 'em. All I needed was a few hours' sleep. I'd been running on fumes for the last day or so."

"You've been awake for all that time? No wonder you fainted on the doorstep."

"Yeah, I was exhausted."

"That's good to hear. My Grandad's in the workshop putting the finishing touches on your pokéballs right now."

"So he is doing them?"

"Yeah, didn't he tell you?"

"He might have, the time just before I fainted is a little fuzzy."

"Well, I suppose that's to be expected" a voice came from the entrance to the dining room.

"Uncle Xavier!" Maisy exclaimed upon sighting her Uncle.

"Xavier?" Ash asked, surprised at hearing the name that the kind gentleman gave him and his sister advice when they were in the Safari Zone almost three years ago.

"Ash?" Xavier asked.

Ash turned around and said "hi, how are you going?"

"I didn't think that I'd ever be seeing you again after I heard what happened in Hoenn."

"Yeah, well, I didn't really think so either, but, well, here we are."

"Here we are indeed."

"Hey, you didn't tell me that you were related to Kurt."

"I was unaware that you knew of him. The Apricorn pokéballs made by our family are not widely known."

"Well, that's fair enough."

"So, Xavier, you've met Ash I take it?" Kurt asked, coming in from his workshop.

"Yes, back when I caught Poliwag and Budew for Jack."

"Oh, I see, I see..."

"Well, do you mind telling me why you...oh, right, you probably wanted some of dad's pokéballs, didn't you?"

"Why yes" Ash replied.

"I take it that you've finished making them dad?"

"Yeah, they're all done."

"I suppose that you want me to give him one of 'those' then, don't you dad?"

"Yes, yes I do."

Xavier smiled and said "well, I was going to give him one anyway."

"One? One what?" Ash asked, thoroughly confused as to what the two older men were talking about.

"Well you see Ash, I happen to work at the Devon Corporations Johto Division in the Pokémon Storage Department. I happened to just complete the latest in Pokémon storage technology. I call it the P.P.S.D"

"The P.P.S.D? What is that?" Ash asked, wanting to know what the acronym stood for.

"The Portable Pokémon Storage Device. I've got one of them here, I was going to give it to Maisy, by I think that right now, you need it more, plus, I can always just build another one for my niece."

"Geez, thanks. So uh, what does it do exactly?"

"Okay, you know how currently when a Pokémon is caught once you already have six Pokémon in your party, they transport to wherever you have got your pokedex set to as a home town?"

"Yes."

"Well, this device makes it so that instead of sending them to some far off place, they instead get sent into this Device."

"I see."

Xavier reached into a bag that he had been carrying and withdrew a handheld device, not too dissimilar to a pokedex and handed it to Ash. Ash swung the protective lid of it around and then looked at the screen. Xavier said "it's a uses touch-screen technology. One the left side is your Pokémon team. On the right, is where your Pokémon are stored. To change your Pokémon between your current team and the ones in storage, you press the one that you want to put into your team and then the one that you want to replace and the change will happen instantaneously. Of course, the Pokémon must be inside the pokéball at the time of transfer. We haven't tried to experiment as to what would happen if you did as there are various laws dealing with experiments conducted on Pokémon."

"Alright, thanks" Ash said, swinging the lid back around, over the screen. "Uhhh, one question though..."

"Yes?" Xavier asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Where am I going to put it?"

"Ah yes, sorry, I'm a bit forgetful at times. Here, this is the belt that goes with it" Xavier said, holding out a Pokémon Trainers Belt that had a pouch for the PPSD to rest in while they were walking.

"Thanks" Ash said, taking the belt from Xavier.

"Now, come with me, young man" Kurt said. Ash followed Kurt into his workshop. "If I remember correctly the last time that you were here, I made you a Lure Ball, correct?"

"Yes."

"Well, I've made you another one, you won't need another explanation as to the effects of that, I also have two friend balls for you; they make your Pokémon grow closer to you, and happier, faster. Two Fast Balls, I shouldn't need to give you a description of them either; also, I recently acquired 10 Dusk Balls to study, you can have 3 of them too."

"Dusk Ball, aren't those from the Sinnoh Region?" Ash asked as he and Kurt started to walk back inside their house, Ash with five pokéballs in his arms.

"Yes, I have a friend who uses Chilan Berries to make pokéballs that are effective against Normal Type Pokémon."

"Really? Where does your friend live?"

"Roseville City."

"Roseville City huh, man I wish I went there when I was in Sinnoh."

"Wait! You've been to the Sinnoh Region?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You wouldn't happen to have caught a Garchomp would you?"

"Uh, I caught a Gible, why?"

"Well there's this Garchomp that seems to like eating everything in sight, we've tried to capture it, but apparently it has already been caught by some..."

Ash, by this time, had his right hand covering his face and he though 'oh god, why me, I though that Gible, sorry, Garchomp, had stopped trying to eat everything.'

"You seem to know something about this Pokémon."

"Yeah, it's mine alright, I was planning on going to Pallet Town to get it, but this..."

"I think that it's something to be admired, a Pokémon that can sense what its trainer is thinking from across the ocean and then act based on that."

"Well, where is Garchomp now?"

"He's probably in the mountains right now."

"Really, that's good then. I'll go there and sort all this out, although..."

"Yes?"

"I think that wearing Prison Orange is not going to do me any favours."

"Yes well, I think that we can manage to do something about that."

"What?"

"My brother was about your size, dad, you still haven't thrown any of his stuff away, have you?" Xavier asked.

"No, I'm afraid that I still can't force myself to do it."

Xavier sighed and said "I know dad, I miss him too, losing a twin is like nothing you can understand."

Ash's eyes widened and thought 'he lost his twin too, hopefully Ashleigh's doing well.'

In a skyscraper in the Hoenn region a black haired beauty in a suit was sitting in a high-backed chair in an orange skirt-suit. She was currently facing away from the door at a large, wall-sized, screen that currently had a brown haired man in an orange suit. "How are the operations going in the Hoenn Region Ashleigh?"

"Everything is proceeding as expected father."

"Good, our organisation has flourished in the Hoenn Region thanks to you. I hope that you do not fail."

"As do I father."

"Good, because if you do, you know what will happen to your Brother."

"You have made that very clear Father."

"Good. Report in this time next week."

"I will, Father." Giovanni shut off the connection to the Hoenn Region. When he had done so a tear crept down Ashleigh's cheek. "Ash" she said, sorrowfully.

In the Kanto Region, just outside of Viridian City Giovanni was furious. His good-for-nothing son, had apparently inherited the aura capabilities from his mothers line and had used them to escape from Steel Penitentiary. If they couldn't find him then he would lose the leverage necessary to force his daughter to finally join the family business; and if Ashleigh found out, and joined up with her brother, then it was almost guaranteed that Team Rocket would completely collapse. Giovanni pushed a button on his intercom and said "get me Jessie, James and Meowth. I've got a job for them."

Meanwhile, in the Johto Region, Ash had finished getting dressed. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a black t-shirt and white shoe. Maisy said "There's one last thing you need Ash."

"Really? What's that?"

"This" she said, holding a black bundle in front of him.

"What's that?"

"Well, you can't go around letting everyone see your face now, can you?"

"Well, no."

"And this here cloak has a hood that will hide it."

"Geez, thanks Maisy" Ash said, taking the bundle from her.

"That's alright."

"Well, I better put this to good use now" Ash said, picking up the Friend Ball on the table. He bent down to Riolu, touched its head with the ball and it got sucked into it. The ball pinged shut almost instantaneously. "Well, thank you," Ash said as he placed the cloak on the table and donned the Pokémon Trainers Belt. He then filled the pokéball slots on the belt with Riolu's ball, a Lure Ball, another Friend Ball and the three Dusk Balls. Ash then placed the PPSD into its corresponding pouch and then put on the cloak, thoughtfully provided by Maisy. He then left Kurt's place and went back to the beach that he had left off from that morning. When he got there Skarmory and Garchomp were also there. He caught both of them in two of the Dusk Ball's and then called Skarmory out, got on its back and headed for Pallet Town.

Three hours later Ash was flying over New Bark Town. Half an hour after that he reached Tohjo Falls; He continued on, changing between Skarmory and Garchomp to preserve Skarmory's strength, should it be needed in the upcoming few hours. Three hours later he was in the skies over Pallet Town. He descended upon Professor Oak's Lab and, when he had set down he saw that all of his Pokémon had come to greet him, somehow knowing that tonight would be the night that he would return. Just as he was about to be mobbed by his Pokémon Ash erected an Aura Barrier that protected him from being crushed, especially by Bayleef who, in the time that he had been incarcerated, had evolved into Meganium. He saw that the Larvitar that he had caught in the Johto Safari Zone had evolved into a Pupitar, Shinx into Luxio and Charmander into Charmeleon. Buizel had also evolved. Ash then saw that a light had been turned on in the Professor's Laboratory as a square of light appeared around him. Ash used his Aura to refract the light around him, but Professor Oak said "I know you're there Ash. You might as well come out from wherever you're hiding." Nothing happened.

"Ash, honey?" Delia Ketchum called out hesitantly.

"Mum" Ash said, losing control of his refraction cloak.

Needless to say, Professor Oak and Delia were shocked at the appearance of Ash, seemingly from nowhere. Professor Oak asked "what was that?"

"That doesn't really matter, does it?" Ash asked.

"No, not really." Delia rushed forward and took her son up into a hug. "I thought that you might be coming by sometime soon."

"What? Why is that?"

"For the last few days all of your Pokémon have been acting strangely, like they were expecting something, or, clearly, someone."

"I see, Xavier said something about that, but I still don't think that it's very important. First of all, where's Ashleigh?" Delia covered her eyes and started to cry. Professor Oak looked sad. Ash got a terrible feeling in his stomach. "Where is she? She's not dead, I would have felt that."

"I'm sorry Ash, but you'd better come inside for this."

"Alright" Ash said, apprehensively. Ten minutes later they were sitting down at the Professor's coffee table with cups of, ironically enough, tea. "Alright, spill it. Just _what_ is going on with my sister."

"Well Ash, it's about your father" Delia said.

"What about him? You said that he left with Ashleigh right after we were born, right?"

"Yes, well, I haven't told you the entire truth about him."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your father, he's...I'm sorry, I just can't tell him" Delia said, looking at Professor Oak.

"Can't tell me? Can't tell me what?"

Professor Oak sighed and said "what your mother cannot, or rather, doesn't want, to tell you, is that your father is the man responsible for Team Rocket being the threat that it is today."

"Wha..." Ash said, his eyes widening in disbelief.

"I truly am sorry Ash, but it is the truth."

"Wait. I asked about Ashleigh. What has Giovanni got to do with my sist...Oh God. Oh God no..." Ash said, putting two and two together. If Giovanni was his father, then he was also his twin sisters' father. "Where is Ashleigh now?"

"I'm sorry Ash, but I really don't know. But knowing your father, he's probably put her in charge of the operations in the Hoenn Region." Ash got an absolutely murderous look in his eyes. "Ash..." Professor Oak said. seeing Ash calm down Professor Oak continued "I don't know why she's doing what he tells her to since she purposefully ran from him as soon as she possibly could, but he..."

"He was using me as leverage to make her do what he wanted."

"I'm sure that even he wouldn't..." Delia said, trying to defend Giovanni, even though she knows what he has done.

"No, that's exactly what's happened" Ash said.

"You don't know..."

"Yes. I do."

"But you..."

"I'm his son. If I wanted Ashleigh to take orders that's the only thing that would work; threaten her family, even if it's your own."

"But that's..."

"I know that that is the only thing that would work on me. Ashleigh is my twin. It's all that would convince her to do so as well. Plus, if I were in Giovanni's position, that's what I'd do, and that's what he's done. He turned his own daughter into a criminal. Taking out both of the only people that have dared to continuously oppose him at the same time."

"I'm sorry Delia, but I have to agree with Ash on this one. That plan is devious and cunning enough for Giovanni to have come up with, and the only people to be able to figure it out would be his own blood."

"I'm sorry Ash, if I'd never..."

"If you'd never met Giovanni Ashleigh and I would not have been born, or we might have, but we would still likely be completely different people; I know that neither Ashleigh nor I have any regrets for being brought into this world by you. Quite frankly, who my father is has never had any bearing on my decisions, and I'll be damned if it does now."

"Ash..."

"Ash, you said that you met Kurt's son, Xavier, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Then I take it that he gave you the Portable Pokémon Storage Device that he was working on?"

"Yes. He did."

"Oh good. There's no problem then."

"Problem?"

"Yes, I take it that you are going to be leaving soon?"

"Yes."

"But Ash, you just got here..."

"Yes, and it will be a lot more dangerous for everyone in Pallet Town if I remain here."

"We're a bit more..."

"You know he's right Delia, if Giovanni sends all of his Kanto forces to storm Pallet Town, even if we did manage to get assistance from all the elite trainers in Kanto, there just wouldn't be enough. You know that if Ash stays here that won't be just a hypothetical situation. It will be a full blown war between the citizens of Pallet, against the forces of Team Rocket. You know who will win that fight, don't you?"

"Yes" Delia said, feeling a sense of defeat and depression that she hadn't felt since Ashleigh had been taken away from her at birth.

"Alright, now Ash, I'm going to transfer to you all of your Pokémon, it will be exceedingly easy with the PPSD."

"Really?"

"Yes. here, I'll show you. Give me the handset." Ash handed Professor Oak the PPSD and Oak, whilst holding the screen to him, pressed a few buttons, and soon enough all of his Pokémon, which had been returned to their pokéballs before they went inside, were stowed in the device. "Before you go, here" Professor Oak said, handing Ash a black version of his Hoenn pokedex. "This has data of all Pokémon currently available, even those in the Unova Region."

"The Unova Region, huh?" Ash rhetorically asked.

"Yes, you'll need to take a plane to get there though, that pokedex that I just gave you is your new ID."

"New ID?"

"Yes, we have given you the name 'Tom Ato' and..."

"Ergh! Uhh, would you mind if _I_ chose the name?"

"But I thought that you did? I mean, that _is_ the name that Misty suggested."

"Grrr" Ash growled "that little..."

"Just out of curiosity, why _did_ she suggest that?"

"When we were travelling around the Kanto Region together we ran across a dispute over which should become an official gym in Dark City, to avoid press attention we used alias', mine was Tom Ato, hers was Ann Chovy and Brock was Caesar Salad."

"But those are all..."

"We were in a restaurant at the time, although I suppose calling it a restaurant is being pretty generous as it is."

"I see, that makes more sense now, I must admit, I _was_ curious. Alright, what name do you want?"

"Well, I've always liked Alex, Alex Smith."

"Alright then, Alex Smith it is" Professor Oak said as he placed the pokedex into a machine, conveniently enough, in the room.

"Alright, I'll be off now. After all, I'm not quite ready yet for my fight against Giovanni. I'll come back when I am. Goodbye." Ash then left Professor Oak's Lab.

"You've raised him well Delia, Ash and his sister are nothing like their father, and they're both a lot stronger than we give them credit for."

"I know that. But even so..."

"Even so...even so" Professor Oak said as he and Delia saw Ash fly off into the night.


	8. Unova

Ash didn't take Professor Oak and his mothers' advice and decided to go to the Unova Region via his Pokémon. The trip would have taken roughly 15 hours to get there by plane, with a few stopovers in the Orre Region, Holon and Fiore. But Ash, even with a new identity, still didn't think that it would fool any security personnel if his face hadn't changed. So, after he flew off on Skarmory he headed straight towards the Unova Region as Professor Oak had a world map on his coffee table and pointed out where it was. The trip ended up taking almost three days. When he'd been flying over the ocean for three hours, on top of the five that it took to get to the Northern Coast of the Kanto Region, he decided to return Skarmory to its pokéball to rest for a while and took to the ocean with Floatzel. He took the time to go to sleep on Floatzel's back, causing it to slow down some. He woke up after sleeping for three hours and spent the remaining time looking in wonder at the horizon, hoping that he was still headed in the right direction. He then got onto Garchomps back and then made some pretty good time, but another eight hours later he got on Skarmory again. He repeated this process until he got within sight of the Unova Coast. Luckily for him he was on Floatzel at the time, not wanting to garner too much attention, which flying in to a Country that was, quite frankly, in the middle of the ocean, nowhere near any other country like Kanto was. It was still another hour before Ash reached the shoreline on Floatzel's back. When he did get there he returned Floatzel to its pokéball and then walked up the beach to look for a Pokémon Centre. He found it pretty close to the stairs leading up from the beach. When he went inside he walked up to the Nurse Joy and found that she was looked different to all of the Nurse Joys that he had previously had dealings with. He said "Hello, I was wondering if..."

"Yes, we most certainly do have rooms available, please, come right this way" the Nurse Joy in charge of the Pokémon Centre said to Ash.

"What? How did you know that I..."

"I hope you don't mind my being blunt, but you sir, stink. All of the patrons here were holding their noses and I think that some of them were about to leave."

"No no, I happen to agree."

"When was the last time you had a shower?"

"About four days ago."

"Four days?" Nurse Joy exclaimed, not comprehending how someone could do such a thing. "I hope you don't mind my asking what stopped you?"

"I was on my way over here."

"But if I'm not mistaken it shouldn't be more than 18 hours from the Hoenn Region."

"What?"

"You _are_ from the Hoenn Region, right?"

"Well, not originally, no. I have spent a lot of time there recently though."

"Ah, I see. That explains it then."

"Explains what?"

"Your accent."

"My accent?"

"The way you sound when you tal..."

"I know what an accent is, I meant, what about it?"

"Well, when someone spends a large amount of time in a certain place the way they sound changes. Don't ask me why, I'm not too sure myself, I just tend to pick up on them more than most."

"I see. Well, no, I came from the Kanto Region."

"Kanto? Then it should be fifteen hours then."

"I didn't get here by plane Nurse Joy, I flew here on my Skarmory and Garchomp, I also spent some time on my Floatzel."

Nurse Joy's eyes widened upon hearing Ash's route to the Unova Region "well then, that sounds like quite a tiring journey, for you _and_ even more so for them."

"I agree. That's why I switched between them every eight hours or so. I was going to give their pokéballs to you earlier, before asking for my room, but you cut me off."

"I see" the Nurse Joy said.

"Well, here they are, and thanks" Ash said as they arrived at the rooms that he was to stay in at the Pokémon Centre.

"What is your name?" Nurse Joy asked before moving off.

"My name?"

"Yes, so I can record whose Pokémon I'm treating, there's a lot more work filling in forms to do after healing the Pokémon than there is actually healing them."

"I see. You know what?"

"No?"

"I think that that's actually the first time that I've ever heard someone in your family complaining about their work."

The Nurse Joy blushed and said "well, I think that all of the rest of the Nurse Joy's happen to be a bit odd like that."

"Maybe" Ash said.

"Oh right, your name?"

"Alex(1), Alex Smith" Alex said.

"Alex huh, interesting."

"Why's that?"

"My name's Alexis."

"Huh, you're right, that is interesting. Well then, thank you Alexis...oh right, just out of curiosity?"

"Yes?"

"Where exactly am I?"

"Where?"

"Yeah, like I said, I'm not exactly from around here."

"Oh, I guess you're right. Well you're in Undella Town on the east side of the Unova Region."

"The East?"

"Yes. Why are you so surprised?"

"I would have thought that I'd hit Castelia City or Nuvema Town before Undella Town."

"Well you were out at sea for quite some time, it's not exactly surprising that you missed your target."

"Well, I must say, I'm glad I did Alexis."

"Really? Why's that?"

"Because, if I did the first person I met in the Unova Region would have been an oddball."

"What?"

"Some other Nurse Joy."

"Oh?"

"I'm infinitely gladder that I met you."

"Really?" Alexis asked, blushing.

"Yeah."

"I'm glad too."

"So, want to hop in the shower with..." Alex started to say before receiving a clipboard to his face. A fuming Alexis stomped out of the room and down the hallway.

"Well" Alex said "I must say, I probably deserved that." Pikachu fell on its back laughing. "Laugh it up furball" Alex remarked prior to receiving a powerful Thunderbolt to his chest. He fell to the floor, thoroughly charcoaled. He then got up, and had his shower, now having a second reason to have it, along with a reason to make it a quick one. When he was done with his shower he got dressed in a similar set of clothes as the ones that Pikachu had fried and went out to the Pokémon Centres front desk. He saw Alexis who, upon sighting him quickly walked away to check on some of her patients. He turned to Pikachu and made a sound of regret, he said "I really kicked it this time, didn't I Pikachu?"

"Pika pika" Pikachu said, nodding sagely.

Alex sighed and said "Well, I guess I'll just have to wait and hope for the best." Now as everyone knows, Ash has never been the best at sitting around and doing nothing so, of course, Alex is no different. He went outside, sat down and crossed his legs in a meditative position. He then focused on his Aura. Once he had found it he pushed it to his eyes. When he opened them he was no longer seeing the world in colour, it was now mostly black and all living things had changed to a blue outline with a kind of blue fire in the centre of the outline. He let his hold over his Aura go and then said, "no, still too long. I'm going to have to make it so I can change into Aura-seeing mode automatically, not to mention while I'm actually moving, but that can come later. Heh, it's funny really, I can use aura to make myself invisible to the naked eye but I can't change my sight over to aura-sight without sitting down and focusing." Pikachu made some sounds translating to 'sorry, I've no idea what to do about it'. "I know buddy, it's just really frustrating. Ah well,..." Alex said, reaching for a pokéball. "Riolu, come on out" he threw the pokéball in the air and Riolu came out in a red light.

"You called Master?"

"How many times do I have to say it Riolu, I'm _not_ your Master, I am your friend."

"If you say so."

Alex sighed and rhetorically asked "I wonder if all Riolu and Lucario are like this to the people that train them."

"What do you mean?" Riolu asked telepathically.

"Oh right, I haven't told you have I? I met a Lucario that got trapped in an Aura Guardians' staff. He for some reason, called his trainer 'Master' as well." Riolu got a mischievous look in his eyes and Alex said "oh no. no, no, no, that's not justification for calling _me_ 'Master'."

"Oh, I think it is."

Alex sighed and said "Hey Pikachu, reckon this Riolu is related to Sir Aarons' Lucario somehow?" Pikachu indicated that it wouldn't have a clue. Alex said "eh, ah well, that's for another time I think." Alex paused for a while and then asked "so Riolu, how are you doing in your aura training?"

"I've managed to master the aura-sight."

"Really?" Alex asked, excitedly.

"Yes, why?"

"How?"

"How? I don't understand."

"I can do the aura-sight technique, but I'm having problems managing to do it in any practical situation."

Riolu tilted its head and said "I can't really describe it, I just gather it and then push it to my eyes."

"Hmm, it could be that I'm just don't have a lot of talent when it comes to manipulating my aura inside the body."

"What do you mean Master?"

Alex sighed and said "there's that name again. Well, anyway. What I mean is, that I can make Aura Spheres, Aura Barriers, Aura Shields, hell, I can even manipulate my aura so that it refracts the light around me, but when it comes to the more subtle things, like manipulating Aura within the human body, well, that's just more difficult for me."

"I see. Well, I'm really just the opposite, I can use it to boost my physical abilities and change my sight capabilities, but all of the things that you were talking about just then, well, as you said, they're more difficult for me."

"I see. Well in that case we'd better concentrate on the areas where we excel more for the time being."

"What do you mean?"

"You find ways to manipulate Aura that can boost our physical abilities and I'll focus more on the external abilities and then I'll teach you how to do them and you can teach me how to do the internal stuff."

"I see. So is that the concept of this 'friend' that you keep on ranting on about?"

"Yes."

"I see. Then I would very much like to be your 'friend'."

"Finally, we're beginning to see eye to eye on this."

"Indeed."

"Well right now I need to think on how I can make it up to Alexis."

"Pika?" Pikachu asked, translating as "Why do you need to make anything up to her?"

"Well that's because I...I just do, that's all."

A/N:  
>(1) I will be referring to Ash as Alex from this point onwards<p> 


	9. New Life, New Pokemon

Here we go, question time.

No, Ashleigh doesn't have the ability to use Aura, Ash inherited his sensitivity to Aura from their mother and Ashleigh, even though they are twins, just didn't. I'm pretty sure that I explained this in an earlier chapter.

No, Ash is not going to turn into a mini-Brock, I can't stand stories like that. He just is new to the whole 'love' concept.

After Alex had not explained how he felt about Alexis to his oldest, and closest, friend, he left the Pokémon Centre to look for a surf store. When he got there he bought some swimmers,  
>board-shorts, a towel and a pair of designer wraparound sunglasses. He then went back to the Pokémon Centre, got changed into the board-shorts and went to the beach. When he got there he saw that a Pokémon battle had started up. A trainer was using a Samurott to battle against a Tentacruel. He asked another bystander "what is that Pokémon that that trainer is using?"<p>

"Which one?"

"Not the Tentacruel."

"Ah, you mean Samurott?"

"Yeah?" Alex answered, unsure as to the validity of his reply.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"Uh, no, why?"

"'Cause, if you were, you'd know that that there is a Samurott; the completely evolved form of Oshawott, the Unova Regions' Water Type starter."

"I see" Alex sagely said.

"This'll be an interesting battle."

"Really? Why is that?"

"Because, the trainer of that Samurott happens to be the mayor of this city and the owner of the Tentacruel is his son, who challenged his father to a battle to decide just who is to be the mayor of this city."

"What?"

"Yeah, I know it probably seems to be a weird way to decide on who rules a town, but 'round here we usually tend to specialise in water type Pokémon; of course you'll get the odd one or two who'll decide to branch out and try to train all different types, but to decide who rules Undella Town it will always be decided by a battle between two water types."

"So it's like a law or something?"

"More of a tradition."

"Well, what if the person that emerges victorious turns out to be no good as a leader?"

"Well then, we're just stuck with them until someone strong enough or capable enough comes along and defeats them."

"I see. What do you think of this mayor then?"

"Well, he cares for his Pokémon and his family; I'll give him that much but, as for caring about the community," he paused "not so much."

"I see, so what about his son then?"

"Well there's the crux of the matter, the mayor _knows_ that he's a no good greedy son of a gun, so he gave his child into the care of officer Julia Jenny, when she retired from the police force and then she raised him, free of the influence of his father. Everyone in the town has actually put all their hopes on him."

"I see" Alex said, staying to watch the battle between father and son for the fate of the town. "So, do you think that he's got any chance of actually winning?"

The man that Alex was talking to smiled and said "if anyone has a hope of defeating the mayor, it would be him."

"I see, so he's strong then?"

"Yes. You see, for as long as Undella Town has been in existence the mayor has been the one to take the forefront when it comes to protecting the town, therefore the position should be held by the strongest trainer in town. That is how the laws were written by our ancestors. That's how it's always been and, likely, how things will stay."

"I see, that kind of thinking would put you in good standings to be able to cope with the current times, wouldn't it?"

"Current times?"

"Well, yes."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm talking about Team Rocket."

"Team who?"

"Team Rocket, they've been rampaging all through the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and even Sinnoh Regions, how can you not have heard of them?"

"'How can you not have heard of us' is the question, so twerpish indeed" Jessie said, out of nowhere.

"The answer to come as we feel the need!" James announced, also somewhere not too far away.

"Bringing the blinding white light of evil into the future!"

"Thrusting the hammer of justice down onto the black darkness of the universe!"

"And carving our names in the Rock of Eternity!" Meowth called out, joining in in the Team Rocket motto.

"The fiery destroyer, Jessie!" Jessie said.

James called out "And with thunderous emotion, I am James!"

Meowth said "Wisest of the wise, Meowth!"

Then, all together Jessie, James and Meowth yelled "Now gather, under the name of Team Rocket!," striking an absolutely ridiculous, not to mention pointless, pose.

"Wow," Alex said "I didn't think that it could actually get any lamer, apparently I was wrong though."

"Do you know these jokers?" the man that Alex had been conversing with asked, looking at Alex.

Alex sighed and replied "unfortunately, though I thought that I had seen the last of them about three years ago."

"Apparently your time in the slammer hasn't mellowed your mind twerp" Jessie said.

"Yeah well, I must say that I had no intention of breaking out, but, well, after I was framed I got to doing some reading, it really was quite fascinating, reading up about the Aura Guardians."

"Aura Guardian? Where have I heard that term before..."

'Aura Guardian?' the man thought to himself. 'How does this young man know about that ancient organisation?' he wondered raising an eyebrow, now interested in Alex's background.

"Yeah, the Aura Guardians. The protectors of the balance between humans, nature and Pokémon & I refuse to allow you to break that balance here."

"You can't do a thing to stop us twerp" James said.

"Oh really; and just why is that?"

"Because" Jessie said, smirking at her genius, "we have your sister and you can't do a thing about it."

"What?" Alex asked getting a dangerous glint to his eyes. Meowths eyes widened and he took a step back, somehow feeling something terrible about to happen. That was when as Alex gathered Aura into three pale blue spheres and shot them at the three members of Team Rocket.

As they flew off Meowth said "alright, next time we don't mention the twerps little sister."

"That's really great Meowth, I wish that hindsight was foresight."

"Well you don't need foresight to see what's happening now" Meowth said.

"You're right" Jessie interjected.

Then, all three Team Rocket members shouted out "WE'RE BLASTING OFF AGAIN!"

"So you can manipulate Aura can you boy?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Well, I happen to be somewhat of an expert in the area of staffs and staves. I believe that all in when they were in their prime, all of the Aura Guardians carried with them a staff."

"That's right" Alex replied.

"I don't suppose you have one do you?"

"Well, no. Like you just heard, I just broke out of prison in the Hoenn Region. I always figured that it would get out sooner or later, but..."

"I seriously doubt that you did anything too serious."

"I didn't do anything."

"You know, I'm sure that every criminal says that..."

"Believe me, they all said it to me at least once while I was in there."

"...but this time I actually believe you."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Well, I won't say a thing."

"Thank you."

"Well, can you think about my offer?"

"Hmm, I'm sorry, what offer was that again?"

"I shall make for you the second sign of an Aura Guardian."

"Second si...ohh, right, the staff."

"Yes."

"Alright, thank you...uhhhh...I'm sorry, I don't think you told me your name?"

"That's perfectly alright, my name is Evan, Evan Faure."

"Alright Evan, it would be an honour."

"Well, come to my house at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Wait, it will be ready by tomorrow?"

"Dear Arceus, no, certainly not. It won't be ready for about twelve months, even if I started right now. No, you will need to train in how to use the staff that I will make. Plus, there's also the design to consider as well."

"Wow, I didn't think that there was too much to do, making a staff."

"Well, if you just want a stick that'll break really easily, then there's an entire forest right there, for you to enjoy."

"Uhh, no no, I'm really happy with the offer. I'll be there tomorrow...uh, where is your house again?"

"I live at the base of Mount Beachmore."

"Beachmore, really?"

"Our ancestors had a _really_ bad naming sense."

"I can tell."

"Oh yes, and if you want to make it up to some belle around here, there's a restaurant that serves a mean parmigiana."

"parmi-what-na?"

Evan sighed and said "youngsters these days, no idea...it's a type of dish, you have a snitzchel, a tomato based sauce and cheese...delish."

"Alright, thanks."

"But the best part is, that if you defeat the owners in a battle, you get to eat for free."

"For free!" Alex exclaimed.

"Yep. I suggest going in early, defeating them, then, making reservations however."

"I see, ummm, what's it called?"

"It's called the Snitzchel Palace."

"Okay, thanks a lot" Alex said as he watched the old man walk away from the crowd. 'hey,' Alex thought 'how'd he know that I wanted to make things up with Alexis? Ah well, I guess I can just ask him tomorrow.' "Come on Pikachu, time to go get me some reservations."

Twenty minutes later Ash arrived at the Snitzchel Palace and went in. When he entered he found, not a restaurant, but a battlefield. The owner of the restaurant, in the far trainers box, said "alright, do you want to battle for a meal, or just pay for it?"

"I'll take a battle any day."

"Oh good. I'm so glad. I hope that you can put up at least some small token of resistance, unlike the last customer that challenged me to a battle."

"What happened?"

"Well, after I fried his Pokémon he left, crying."

"I see, so you must be pretty strong then?" Alex asked.

"You could say that."

"So, what are the rules?"

"First of all, will you be eating now, or later?"

"I think later."

"Very well then, how many?"

"Hopefully two."

"Two, very good, then in that case it will be a one-on-one battle, the person who can knock out the other persons Pokémon first is the winner."

"Alright, you're on."

"Go, Metagross" the restaurant owner called out, releasing his most powerful Pokémon from its pokéball.

"Metagross huh?" Alex asked.

"Yes, Metagross is my oldest and most trusted ally."

"Well, Pikachu here is my starter, but, to defeat a Metagross, this Pokémon is more than enough" Alex said, throwing a pokéball towards the owner. An Infernape appeared from the pokéball in a flash of red energy.

"So, an Infernape is it? A fire type, a good choice to go up against a steel type, but you forget, Metagross is part psychic type as well, a bad matchup against the partial fighting type Infernape."

"Eh, that just means that we each have both strength _and_ weakness against each others' Pokémon. Sounds like a fair fight to me."

"Well, I like your attitude. You could probably get in at least the top four of the Unova League. Then your money problem would be solved, at least, partly."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the Gyms in the Unova Region are slightly different to the ones where you're from, here, when you defeat a Gym Leader, or any other trainer, you will also get an amount of money, agreed upon prior to the battle."

"So, here Pokémon battles aren't just conducted for the fun of it, there's a business side to them as well?"

"You could look at it that way. I choose to see it as merely another opportunity."

"An opportunity huh? Sounds interesting."

"I thought that that might tickle your fancy. Well, on with our battle."

"Alright."

"You can go first."

"Thank you. Infernape, use Flamethrower on Metagross."

Infernape took a breath and let out a fiery stream from its mouth. It raced towards Metagross. The restaurant owner, whose nametag pronounced that his name was Gunther, said "Metagross, send it back with Psychic." The fire gained an eerie blue glow around the edges, and the fire turned back around and slammed into Infernape. Alex scoffed, "Damn psychic attacks." "Metagross, use Psychic to hold Infernape in the air then use Meteor Mash." Infernape gained a blue glow and it got raised up, towards the ceiling. Metagross, once it was satisfied with the height that it had helped Infernape reach, charged towards Infernape. It slammed its fist into Infernape, causing it to double over in mid-air, still being held in place by Metagross' psychic powers. "Slam Infernape into the ground" Gunther ordered. Metagross tossed Infernape into the ground, losing control over Infernape in the process.

When Infernape had risen up from the ground, to Gunthers surprise, taking very little damage, Alex called out "Infernape, use Mach Punch." Infernapes hand glowed white and it charged quickly at its opponent. Infernape moved so quickly in fact, that the only way that it could be tracked by the human eye, was by the white streak that the Mach Punch was leaving as Infernape moved. When Alex instinctively knew that Infernape was close enough, he called out "now, change to Fire Combat." Both of Infernapes' fists caught fire, along with its feet and it started hitting Metagross with its fire enhanced punches and kicks. Eventually Alex realised that, even though it was dealing an incredible amount of damage, it just wouldn't cut it if he wanted to defeat Metagross. He said "Alright Infernape, use a full powered Mach Punch to send Metagross flying" Infernapes fist took on a white sheen, larger and brighter than it had previously been and hit Metagross, sending it into the air, tumbling end over end. Eventually it stabilised itself, but it was too late as it was hit by the Flare Blitz that Alex had ordered his Infernape to use immediately after the Mach Punch had sent the Metagross soaring.

After Alex and Gunther had returned their pokemon to their respective pokéballs Gunther walked over to Alex and said "congratulations young man, I will be more than happy to make your food for free for giving me such a great battle."

"Hey, you weren't too bad yourself."

"Why thank you. I'm afraid that I don't have any money to give you though..."

"That's fine, the meal is more than enou..."

"Nonsense, that's already my business' policy...ah, I know; come with me" Gunther said as he walked away from Alex towards a door in the side wall of the battle arena. Alex followed him. Gunther led Alex to the back of his property and to a house that, apparently, belonged to him and his wife. He took Alex to a decently sized shed off to the side of the house. They entered the shed and Gunther turned and looked at Ash. "Alright, my wife's Samurott and my Empoleon recently had one of their eggs hatch, we were going to give it to Alexis over at the Pokémon Centre to give to a new trainer, but I think that it will find a great home with you. What do you say?" Gunther asked.

"Sure, I'd love to have it come with me."

Gunther looked down to see Oshawott walk over to Alex and rub its head up against his leg. "Well, it seems that Oshawott likes you, well, it's settled then, Oshawott is yours. Ash dropped a Lure Ball on Oshawott and it pinged as soon as Oshawott was inside it." Alex held the Lure Ball away from him and said "Alright, I caught an Oshawott."

"Well, I see that Oshawott will be in for at least a little excitement travelling with you."

'Oh if only you knew how much _'excitement' _that Oshawott and I'll be having, you wouldn't be so happy' Alex thought. "I have no doubt of that Gunther."

"Well, what time will you want to be coming around for your meal?"

"Hmm, around 8 o'clock if that's alright?"

"That's fine. Just don't be late."

"Alright, thanks. See ya" Ash said, going back the same way that he had used to get to the shed.

When he got to the Pokémon Centre he went up to Alexis and said "Hey, uh, sorry about before" scratching the back of his head.

Alexis replied "and so you should be. That was very rude of you."

"Yeah, I've never really had much experience dealing with emotions other than the desire to protect and the lust for battle...pokemon battling that is" Alex said, fumbling with his words.

Alexis said "I see. Well then, I'll forgive you; on one condition though."

"Condition?" Alex asked, frowning.

"Yes. You have to take me out to dinner."

"Alright" Alex replied, no arguments asked.

"Huh?" Alexis asked, stunned that there was no attempts at refusal.

"Huh? What do you mean huh? You asked me to take you out and I agreed."

"Oh, nothing, I was kind of expecting you to put up some resistance to it or something, that's all. As a matter of fact, you agreed to it too quickly."

"What? Well, expectations aside, I had already planned on doing so."

"Wha...?" Alexis asked, stunned at what Alex had said.

"Well, I just got reservations for us, for 8 o'clock this evening."

"That's not..."

"Possible? Oh but I assure you, it is."

"Well then, will I need to dress up for it?"

"Doubtful."

"Well then, smart casual it is then."

"Smart casual?"

"Yeah, you know, better than you would normally wear, but not formal."

"Oh, well, if you say so then."


	10. Chapter 10

The next day Alex had well and truly made up with Alexis...4 times. When he woke up it was not in his room in the Pokémon Centre, it was next to Alexis in her house. As he started to get up Alexis started to wake up as well. Alex then moved slower so as to allow his girlfriend, because there was no way that she wasn't after what they had done the previous night, and well into the morning. He went out and, after finding everything that he needed, he made a breakfast of jam on toast and bacon. Alexis came out halfway through making it. Alexis had a shower whilst she waited for Alex to make breakfast for the two of them. When she came out she was dressed for work. Alex, seeing her in her work clothes, asked "you're going to work today?"

"Why yes, there's no end to my work at the Pokémon Centre."

"I see. I thought that there would have been numerous Nurse Joy's working at each Pokémon Centre."

"Well, usually there are, but the other my mother recently passed away and I'm waiting for her replacement to come, right now I'm all there is."

"I see. It must be tough work."

"It is. But I think that it has its own rewards."

"I suppose so."

"So, what are you going to do today?" Alexis asked Alex as he came to the table with the breakfast.

"Well, I need to go to Evan Faure's house today."

"Master Evan?"

"Master?"

"Well yes, what, you don't know who he is?"

Alex sighed and exasperatedly said "you know that I only just got here Alexis."

"Oh, right. Well, anyway. Master Evan is a well known craftsman here in Undella Town. As a matter of fact, I think that almost all of the furniture in Undella Town has been made in part by him or one of his apprentices. What do you need to see him about?"

"Uh, that's kind of..." he then looked at Alexis who was giving him a look that made him feel that if he didn't tell her she wouldn't be too happy with him and some form of pain would follow. He sighed and said "fine, I suppose you'd find out eventually anyway."

"Find out? Find out what?"

"That I have the ability to utilise the power of aura."

"Aura" Alexis said, thinking back to her childhood.

"Yes, aura, the power residing inside of all living things." Alexis' eyes widened as she remembered where she had heard of it before "anyway, there used to be an organisation called the Aura Guardians..."

"I know" Alexis said.

"You know?"

"Yeah, my father said that I'm descended from a powerful Aura Guardian when I was very young. I'd completely forgotten about it."

"Can you..."

"No, my father said that I didn't have the capacity, though I have no idea how he figured that out."

"Your father could probably use aura himself, I'm not sure of about this myself, but when I was reading Sir Aaron's' book on Aura it said that people with the capacity to utilise aura could somehow instinctively feel it in another person, or being."

"I see."

"Well, anyway, back to what I'm seeing Master Evan about. There were two signs that a person was an aura guardian. The first is that they have an aura sensitive Pokémon, usually a Lucario, although some were known to have a Medicham or Togekiss, in some cases though they had a Mienshao."

"I see."

"Well the second sign is a staff."

"A staff?"

"Yes. Master Evan told me that he had experience creating them and offered me to make me mine."

"I see. Well then it will be at least six months before I see you again."

"What! Why?"

"Because, Master Evan tends to be a bit eccentric when it comes to things that he's created. He'll probably drag you to his estate in the mountains until you manage to master bojutsu to an acceptable level."

"Bojutsu?"

"It's a martial art style that utilises a staff."

"I see. Well then, here's hoping that I reach an 'acceptable level' in less than six months."

"Yes, here's hoping" Alexis said in a sad tone, thinking of all seven of Evan Faure's daughters.

"Hey, buck up, I'll be back in no time."

"Yes but..."

Alex shut her up by kissing her. "_Nothing_ is going to happen to change how I feel about you."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Swear it to me."

"I swear that I will _never_ cheat on you and will love you to the end of my existence. Will that do?"

"Yes" Alexis said, blushing.

Alex then went into Alexis' room, got dressed and then they went to the Pokémon Centre, Alexis to go to work for the day and Alex to have a shower and get dressed for the day.

I know that this was a really short one, but I try to have each chapter focus on a single thing so...

Also in response to one of the reviews that I received I put a poll up on my profile, please participate in it.


	11. Return to the Battle

Once Alex was cleaned up and dressed he packed his backpack and went to the front desk. He kissed Alexis on the cheek as he said, "see you in a few months."

"Yeah, bye Alex...and remember what you said."

Alex smiled as he said, "I say a lot of things...but I will."

Alexis thought '_I don't know, maybe I should_ go with him after all...nah, I believe in him.' She then focused back on the computer that she had been working on before Alex came by.

"Oh, right..." Alex said, remembering something that he had forgotten. "Do you mind telling me exactly where Evan Faure lives?"

"Huh?"

"Remember, I just got here?"

"Oh right, he lives about a twenty minute walk west of Undella Town. Just turn right when you get to the end of this street and then walk straight."

"Alright, thanks" Alex said as he turned around, taking his last sight of Alexis that he would get for the upcoming months.

Thirty minutes later Alex reached the house of Evan Faure, although to simply call it a house is like trying to call a pair of sandals a pair of steel capped shoes. The 'house' looked like it was something straight out of the Ming dynasty. Alex thought '_geez, he doesn't really spare much on the theatrics, does he?_' he sighed and said, "Well, no matter. I'm here now so I might as well just head on in."

As Alex went to the door Evan came around the side of the house, calling "Hey, Alex, top of the morning to you."

"Evan! Hi."

"Yes yes, well come on in, I have all the designs that I've ever made in the living room."

"Alright, thanks," Alex said as the entered the main house. "Hey, Alexis was telling me that you like to see that the people that you make things for are able to use them correctly or something like that. Is that true?"

"Alexis, Alexis...I'm sure that I've heard that name before somewh..." Evan's eyes shot open, remembering that Alexis was the name of the Nurse Joy in charge of the Pokémon Centre in Undella Town. "So that's who you were looking to make things up with yesterday, you sly devil you. I remember her mother in her day, I'm tellin' ya, she was somethin' to look at."

Alex, in a flat tone, said, "I don't think that I really want to hear this."

"Well, suit yourself. Ah, here we are," Evan said as they entered the living room, where all of the staff designs that Evan had created over the years were lying all over the floor. "Here are the designs for your staff."

"Really, there's so many!"

"Yes well, I have had a lot of time to do them in."

Just then a fourteen year old girl came rushing in, flinging her arms around Evan. She said, "Hey Dad, I'm back!"

"Evelyn! I wasn't expecting you back for at least another two days."

Evelyn said, "Yeah well I decided to fly here on Braviary from Opelucid City"

"Oh, that explains it."

"Yeah, I had to leave my Braviary with the Nurse Joy in Undella Town though." Only then did she see that her father was conducting business before she interrupted him. She looked at Alex and said, "Sorry for interrupting mr...mr..."

"Alex, Alex Smith. I take it that you are Evelyn?"

"Yeah." Evelyn scrutinised Alex for about two minutes before she asked "heyyy...do I know you from somewhere?"

"I don't think so," Alex said as he thought '_god I hope she doesn't recognise me from that trial._'

Seeing that his daughters' questions were making Alex nervous, Evan said, "Evelyn, why don't you go have a shower and get changed."

"Okay," Evelyn called out as she ran out of the room and upstairs.

"So, is there anything that I should know about before we start?" Evan asked Ash after Evelyn had left.

"Umm...no, I don't think so," Ash replied.

"Very well then," Evan said as they bent over the designs once again.

Two hours later Alex had chosen a staff design and Evan had agreed to make it, on the condition that Alex take six months off to learn how to use a staff in combat. Alex agreed, not caring about the extra time needed. As the two men were sealing the deal with a handshake, Evelyn came down and said to Alex, "I challenge you to a Pokémon battle," thinking, '_If I battle him I'll be able to tell where I know him from._'

Alex looked unsurely at Evan, who shrugged, not caring if the battle took place or not. Alex said, "Sure, why not. It'll be good to have a friendly battle. But before we start, I might be a bit rusty."

"Huh?" Evelyn asked, not sure what Alex meant by 'rusty'.

Evan said, "It means that it's been a while since he was in a serious battle honey."

"Ohh...I see. I'll take it easy on you then."

"You better not," Alex said.

"Eh, but I thought that you said that you were rusty, that means that your battling skills have probably dropped, right?" Alex nodded. "Then isn't it only fair to take it easy on you?"

"No, if you don't battle with all of your skills then there is no point to the battle. More than that, it's insulting to your Pokémon that believe in you."

"Insulting...to the Pokémon?"

"Yes."

"What do you mean?"

Alex sighed and said, "Let's battle and I think that you might see what I mean."

"Well, alright," Evelyn said, no longer sure of her victory.

The two trainers left the house to go round the back of the property where there was a battlefield set up.

Ash looked at the battlefield and asked, "Why is there a battlefield set up back here?"

"Well, since father trains us in the use of the staffs that he makes we need somewhere to practice. Also we teach Pokémon the technique Bone Rush here."

"Really? Do you think that you could teach my Riolu Bone Rush when it evolves into Lucario?"

"Yeah sure, I don't see why not."

"So, how many Pokémon do you want to use?"

"A three on three battle."

"Alright then, you go first," Ash said, waiting for Evelyn to call out her first Pokémon.

"So, Simisage," Evelyn called out as she threw a Pokéball towards Alex's side of the field. Soon enough the Pokéball was back in Evelyn's hand and a green, monkey-like, Pokémon was staring at Alex.

Alex said "Simisage huh?" as he took his Pokédex out and pointed it at Evelyn's Simisage. The Pokédex returned, "Brethren of Simipour and Simisear, Simisage is ill tempered, it fights by swinging its barbed tail around wildly. The leaf growing on its head is very bitter." Alex said, "Alright then, Riolu, you're up."

Evelyn said, "Alright Simisage, use Sunny Day." The green, hair-like, protrusion on Simisage's head glowed white and a beam shot up, into the sky, increasing the light on the battlefield and slightly raising the heat. Alex smirked. Evelyn called out, "You won't be smiling in a minute buddy. Simisage, use Solarbeam." the green hair on Simisage's head glowed white as it drew in sunlight for its strongest attack. Due to the use of Sunny Day the sunlight necessary for the attack was gathered almost instantly. Simisage extended its right hand and a beam of white-green energy shot towards Riolu.

Alex said, "Riolu, duck." Riolu ducked under the Solarbeam that had been heading towards its head. "Now, use Blaze Kick." At a speed that Evelyn hadn't thought possible, Riolu appeared by Simisage's side, jumped, and kicked it in the head with an empowered flaming kick. Simisage was sent flying to the left and, when it landed, it was unconscious.

Evan said "Simisage is unable to battle. This round goes to Alex."

Evelyn looked at her unconscious Simisage, stunned at what just happened. When she regained her powers of speech she rounded on Alex and said, "You cheated!"

Alex demanded, "What? How did I cheat?"

"I don't know how you did it, but there's no way that Riolu should be faster than Simisage."

Alex smiled and said, "I'll tell you how it did after the match is over," as he rubbed Riolu's head. Suddenly Riolu was engulfed by a white light. Alex's eyes widened at what was happening. He whispered, "Riolu's..."

"Evolving!" Evelyn finished.

Soon enough Riolu's light-encased form shifted and grew larger. When the light disappeared what was left in place of Riolu was a Lucario. Lucario smiled and hugged Alex, who, laughingly, said, "stop it Riol...sorry, Lucario, you're embarrassing me," after Lucario let go of him Alex drew a Pokéball from his belt and said, "Come on out, Pupitar." A blue cocoon-like Pokémon appeared out of the Pokéball.

Evelyn said, "Pupitar huh?" as she drew a Pokéball from her belt and called out, "come on out, Simipour." Out of the Pokéball burst another monkey-like Pokémon, this time blue with dreadlocks.

Alex said, "alright, I'll go first. Pupitar, use Rock Slide." Pupitar glowed blue as five boulders flew up, out of the ground, and then, when they were between the two Pokémon, flew at Simipour.

Evelyn called out, "Simipour, jump on those rocks and then use Hydro Pump." Simipour jumped from rock to rock, pushing them down as it jumped from one to the other. When it had pushed the last one to the ground it launched a powerful torrent of water at Pupitar. When the stream hit Pupitar it caused it to go flying out of the battlefield and into a tree.

When Evan looked at Pupitar he saw that it was unconscious and announced, "This round goes to Evelyn. Since the rounds are tied the trainers will call their Pokémon at the same time."

Alex returned Pupitar to its Pokéball, saying, "Well done Pupitar, you deserve a nice rest."

As Evelyn drew her Pokéball she thought '_I've got to win this one. That's why..._' as she threw her Pokéball, she said "come on out, Emboar."

At the same time Alex was thinking, '_hmm...I think that it's well and truly time that I get some practice in with him._' He then drew a Pokéball and, as Evelyn was announcing hers, said, "I choose you, Combusken."

Evan thought, '_Well, I must admit, I never saw this coming, a battle between the Fire-Type starter of the Hoenn Region vs. the Fire-Type starter of the Unova Region._' Evan said, "Alright, let the final round begin."

Evelyn said, "Ladies first, Emboar, use Flame Charge." Emboar was surrounded by flames as it charged at Combusken.

Alex called, "Combusken, use Bulk Up." Combusken started to glow red as Emboar continued to amble towards it. The red glow died down as Emboar neared Combusken. Alex said, "Use Crush Claw." Combusken's claws glowed white and white energy started to crackle around them. As Emboar was about to hit it, Combusken slashed at it with its glowing claws. It hit it and, although it didn't stop Emboar, not that Alex was expecting it to, it did lower its defensive capabilities. At the same time Combusken was shot back. While it did go back about seven feet it didn't lose its footing. It stated on its feet, sliding backwards.

When it stopped Evelyn exclaimed, "What the! It didn't do a thing?"

Alex said "what did you expect? You used a Fire Type move against my Fire Type Combusken. That's ignoring the fact that it, along with your Emboar, if its appearance is anything to go by, also has Fighting Type properties."

"Well, no matter. Emboar, use Flame Charge again." Emboar was, once again, surrounded by fire as it charged, faster this time, at Combusken.

"You just don't learn, do you? Combusken, use Fire Blast." A stream of superhot fire, given more power by the Sunny Day that was still in effect, with a five pronged star at the end, raced at Emboar. The fully evolved fire type didn't stop. It just kept on coming. It hit Combusken and, once again, did almost nothing. Emboar then retreated back to its side of the field a lot faster than it had than before it had used Flame Charge. Alex's eyes widened as he realised Flame Charge's second effect. He frowned as he said, "so, Flame Charge increases Emboar's speed does it?"

"Very observant of you Alex. But too late; Emboar, use Flare Blitz." Emboar was surrounded by a blue fire as it quickly charged at Combusken.

Alex thought '_oh good lord, that's not good. What is there that...ah well..._' "Combusken, use Fire Blast" Alex commanded, hoping that it might weaken the power behind the Flare Blitz. It did absolutely nothing and, when Emboar hit Combusken, Combusken went flying to the edge of the battlefield. Alex asked, "Combusken, are you okay?" Combusken, panting, shakily returned to its feet and took on a flaming appearance.

Evelyn asked, "Is that..."

Alex smiled and said, "Yeah, that's Blaze."

Evelyn growled and said, "Alright Emboar, we've got to finish this quick, use Scald."

Combusken, hearing the command to use the Water Type attack Scald, started to glow white. Alex thought, "_So, it's using the energy generated by Blaze to ignite its evolution_."

Evelyn shrieked, "What? That's not possible!"

Evan said, "Possible or not Evelyn, it is happening."

Out of the white light emerged not Combusken, but Blaziken. Blaziken let out a roar of challenge to Emboar, who returned it in kind. Evelyn yelled, "What are you waiting for Emboar, use Scald now." a stream of hot water shot out of Emboar's mouth towards Blaziken.

Alex thought back to when he was battling against Flint of the Sinnoh Elite Four in Sunnyshore City Gym and how his Infernape handled an attack from his Buizel. On impulse Alex said, "Alright Blaziken, use Brick Break with both hands to knock the water down." Both of Blaziken's claws glowed white and he brought them down on the Water-Type attack, effectively blocking it.

Evelyn growled at what Alex's Blaziken had done and said, "Fine then, Emboar, use Flare Blitz."

As Emboar charged at Blaziken Alex said, "Blaziken, use Bulk Up." Blaziken glowed red once again as Emboar charged at him. Blaziken's red glow died as Emboar neared him and Alex said, "Use Blaze Kick." Blaziken's foot caught fire as it spun around and kicked Emboar as it hit Blaziken. The two fire type attacks clashed and battled for dominance, Flare Blitz because of its inherent power, and Blaze Kick because of the increases in attack power that Blaziken had received from both the use of Bulk Up and Blaze. There was an explosion of opposing energies and the two Pokémon were blasted away from each other. When the dust cleared the two Pokémon were on the ground, unconscious.

Evan declared, "Since both Pokémon are unable to battle this round, as well as the match, is a draw."

Alex and Evelyn returned their Pokémon to their Pokéballs and went to the middle of the battlefield. They shook hands as Evelyn said, "you don't seem to be as rusty as you claimed to be."

Alex smiled and said, "It's only because you came at me with all your power that I could participate in such a battle."

Evelyn sighed and said, "And here I thought that I was completely ready for the Pokémon League Competition."

"There's a Pokémon league competition here in the Unova Region?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, what, did you just get here or something?"

"Yes."

"Hm, well then, yeah, you need eight badges to compete though and the competition is being held in one month so you won't have enough time to participate in this years. Next year will be the first time that you'd be able to compete, time-wise that is."

"Alright, thanks."

"No problem. So, now fess up, how did Lucario move so fast?"

"Well, we've been training in the use of Aura, and Lucario used it to dramatically increase his speed."

"I see. Well I must admit, such a thing never even crossed my mind. Hey, do you think that your Lucario could teach my Mienshao how to do that?"

"Hm...I don't see why not, although I'm unsure if Mienshao would be able to do it anyway."

"Thanks," Evelyn said, "Mienshao, come on out," throwing a Pokéball that she had retrieved from her belt.

Alex called out, "Hey Lucario, come over here."

"Yes, master," Lucario said, through his Aura.

"I thought I told you to cut that out. You know what, since it is obvious that you're not going to, I won't even bother anymore."

"What is your desire?"

"I need you to teach Evelyn's Mienshao how to increase its speed with aura. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes, right away," Lucario replied, it turned to Mienshao and indicated its desire for it to follow him.

As their Pokémon walked away Alex turned to Evelyn and asked, "Do I remember you saying that you can teach Bone Rush here?"

"Yes, why, do you want us to teach it to Lucario?"

"Yes."

"Alright, that's fair enough. I do have another question for you though."

"Yes?"

"How did you come up with that idea to use Brick Break to counter Scald?"

"Oh that. About four years ago I was in a battle, unofficial of course, against the Unova Regions' Flint, one of their Elite Four and well, since he was using his Infernape I used Buizel and had it use Water Gun. It beat it down like that. I thought that I might give it a shot. I was just lucky that it worked. Otherwise I would have been a goner."

"So what was that Pokémon, Blaziken was it?"

"You don't know?"

"Yeah, I haven't really been out of the Unova Region that much. I started my journey only last year and that was in Johto."

"I see. Well yeah, Blaziken is the Fire-Type starter in the Hoenn Region."

"Hoenn eh?"

"Yeah, there's also Sceptile and Swampert. I have a Sceptile with me too."

"Really? Can I see it?"

Alex laughed and said, "sure thing, but I think that tomorrow is probably a better time, your father and I have some work to do."

"Indeed we do," Evan said, walking over to the two trainers.


End file.
